Car Arguments
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: Just a bunch of arguments/moments they can have in the car. Gwevin and bits of Benlie.
1. Pissing Off Kevin

**I don't own Ben 10. That'd be totally cool, but I don't. Sorry!! And I really really don't like prologues. You get none and like it. First FanFic!!!**

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Kevin's head whipped over to Gwen. "This car is probably the best ride you'll ever get to ride in your whole life! Don't jump down my throat just 'cause it's not clean!"

"I'm not down your throat, Kevin!" she snapped back. "Just let me clean it for you or something!"

That was his last nerve. "Get outta my car," he said, keeping his voice calm for the moment.

"What?!"

"Kevin, you can't just kick her out! She's my cousin!" Ben hollered from the back seat. He stuck his head closer to the front.

"THEN BOTH OF YOU GET OUTTA MY CAR!"

"Can you at least slow down?" Gwen asked softly, a little hurt.

"No!"

"Just get out already!" He slammed his fist down on the dashboard.

"What's going on? Just because we want to help you, this whole conversation is a problem?" Ben asked. He looked over to Gwen his eyes sparked with confusion.

Kevin put his head on the steering wheel. "Please. Just get out."

Ben's eyes shot open wider than before. "He said _please?_"

The raven headed teen looked back at him. "Don't make me force you out!"

"Okay!" Gwen said, finally cutting back in. "We'll leave. Can you at least pull over?"

"Sure," Kevin murmured, giving in. He slowed his green car down to a stop on the side of the road.

Ben got out immediately, not wanting to listen to the older teen.

Gwen looked over at Kevin. "Just call me when you want to talk, okay?"

He nodded slowly as he watched her disappear through the car door. _I screwed up. She's mad at me. What am I going to do?_

It was all planned in his head. Stupid jokes. Piss her off a bit. Then out of nowhere, ask her out. Plain and simple. Too easy to be true. Until Ben got involved. Why did the little punk always have to ruin everything?

Kevin pulled away, watching Gwen in the rearview mirror. His plan could still work. Just differently. He smiled as his mind worked slowly around his new idea. "That could work," he murmured to himself.

"Oh god. I'm talking to myself now."

Ben stared after the vanishing car. "He is such a jerk!" he yelled, throwing his hands up to show for it.

"Mhm," Gwen muttered in reply, her arms folded across her chest.

"He's crazy! He wanted us to jump out while he was going like a hundred miles an hour!"

"Mhm."

"Kevin is the worst person-

"Mhm."

"And you are totally in love with him.

"Mhm."

Ben looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Did you even hear what you just said, Gwen?"

"Mhm."

"You aren't going to deny it?"

"Why should I try to ignore the truth?" Gwen countered quickly. Her eyes flicked to her brunette cousin. "He's funny and sweet. Kevin can be sensitive. He knows what he wants and doesn't have troubles speaking his mind. What is there not to like, Ben?" Then her mind jumped to the parts of the raven headed teen that bugged her. "And I mean other than the lame jokes, the car obsession, and the whole criminal background."

He just sighed. "You're right. I don't know. Enlighten me."

Gwen rolled her eyes, gave her cousin a little shove, and headed off in the direction of her house.

**A/N: okay, I'm hoping this was a good first attempt??? I'll add more oneshots to this whenever. R&R??**


	2. The Littering of Smoothies

**A/N: I'm pretty much just winging these 'cause they're totally fun and easy!**

"Ben, if you spill that smoothie in my car, I may have to kill you."

"Kevin!" Gwen scolded.

"Then tell him to throw the smoothie away!" Kevin said. He kept watching the younger teen in the rearview mirror, just waiting for him to screw something up. Whether he spilled in the car or destroyed the entire thing with a simple touch of the Omnitrix, Ben was going to get it.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Where do you suppose I shall throw it away, Oh Great One and Possessor of the Car? It's not like you have a garbage in here."

Kevin looked over his shoulder. "Since when did you know so many big words, Small Fry?"

Gwen sighed, rolling her eyes. The only time Ben and Kevin weren't fighting was when they were watching TV or fighting aliens. And even then, one little thing would set Kevin off and it'd come to Ben using the Omnitrix to kick his butt and then settle things down again. "Guys, please stop," Gwen said, putting a hand on her forehead.

Kevin looked over at her in concern. "Yeah, Ben. Cut it out," he spat at the other boy.

"Do you _want_ this smoothie on your head, Levin?"

"No. Get rid of it before I get rid of you!"

Ben stared at the raven headed teen. "You wouldn't."

"Of course I would."

"Do I have to kick both of you out of here?" Gwen said, raising her voice. This was getting to be a nightmare…

Kevin closed his eyes, telling himself that it'd all be just fine. Ben wouldn't spill. Ben wouldn't destroy the car. He'd be nice and quiet and stay in the backseat and-

"Oops."

"YOU DID NOT JUST SPILL IN MY CAR!"

"I'll just throw the rest of it away." Ben rolled down the window and threw the smoothie out.

"That's littering," Gwen pointed out.

Ben sighed. "Then pull over and let me pick it up again."

A silent plan formed in Kevin's mind. "Okay." He pulled the Camaro to the side of the road.

The back door opened and Ben jumped out. He walked back a few paces and picked up the drink again. "See. That was easy. No more littering. Gwen's happy. And I'll clean up the smoothie in your backseat-" His eyes fell to where the car was only moments before. "-and Kevin's gone." He shook his head and drank part of the smoothie, spitting it back out, realizing it was filled with mud. "And I am lost in the middle of nowhere. Thanks a lot for trying to stop him, Gwen."

"He deserved it." Gwen sighed, staring out the window into the cold night.

"Of course he did. Why else would I drive off?" Kevin laughed watching Ben helplessly in the rearview mirror.

A/N: Yes they're short, but I'm still practicing to get better. So please no biting my head off! R&R


	3. Life's Little Instruction Book

A/N: I have Starbucks. I have my phone. I have music. And my idea is sitting in my lap. Hehehehehe. This is gonna be a longer one, folks. Sky is on a roll today. So now all I need is a werewolf to make my day… I've got a book for that and it's not Twilight!!

**This is a real book I found in my library and I have to give the author credit. Thank you so very much to my librarian's for finding this and H. Jackson Brown Jr. for writing it.**

"Life's Little Instruction Book"

Ben jumped in the backseat, throwing his backpack on the floor where it loudly _crunched_ as it hit some of the random alien tech Kevin kept around. The definition of his car was trashed. Or at least on the inside. "Mr. Smoothie, Jeeves."

"I'm not your chauffer, Tennyson," the older snarled, looking over his shoulder. "And I'm only picking you up because Gwen asked me to. And we're not going to Mr. Smoothie. Don't forget this is _my _car. Not yours. Mine. _Not yours. Mine._"

"Whatever." The brunette rolled his eyes as the car rolled onward to a private school on the far side of town. A quick flash of his memory and he remembered what he wanted to show his teammates. "Guess what?"

"You grew a brain?" Kevin guessed, keeping his dark obsidian gaze on the solid black road in front of him. "Huh. I never would've thought." He let his eyes wander to the rearview to see Ben's hurt expression.

"Funny," Ben sighed. He had thought he and Kevin were finally getting along better. Apparently, it was only when Gwen was around. He shook his head, a little disappointed. "No. I've had a brain. How else would we win every fight against the DNAliens?"

"Oh, sorry," the other laughed sarcastically. The road kept rolling under the car. The driver watched the yellow lines on the road flash past with boredom. "So what? We got some alien butt to kick? Julie dump you?"

Ben rifled through his backpack for a while. He pushed his homework aside and a few of his textbooks. "I found this really cool book at the library."

Gwen looked over her shoulder. "Since when have you ever gone to the library?" she asked.

"I don't even know where it is," Kevin confessed with a laugh.

"Julie and me were over there studying." Ben looked up, realizing that his cousin was in the car. "And when did you get here?" he said, shocked by her sudden appearance. He grabbed the tiny, worn book out of his bag. It's plaid cover shone with the lamination although the corners were bent out of shape.

"You were looking for that book and she got in the car. Do the math, Tennyson. You were trying to find it for like ten minutes or something."

His cousin reached back and took the tattered item. "_Life's Little Instruction Book_," she read. "Why in the world would we need this?"

"I already come with an instruction book," Kevin joked. "Feed. Water. Let sleep. Give car and license." He let his eyes wander over to Gwen to see what she thought of his humor.

Her face was concentrated as she stared at the cover of the book in Ben's hands with serious intrigue and curiosity in her eyes.

Apparently, she didn't think much of him. _Books rank over friends,_ Kevin thought, making a mental note to himself.

"We made up this really cool game you can play with it," Ben continued. He had already read a little bit of it. Only like half of the first page, but that was still considered reading. Right?

"Please tell me it's nothing stupid," the redhead groaned. She thought of the hundreds of different things her immature cousin could do with a tiny book. Shove it down a poor, innocent dog's throat. Play Frisbee with it. Use it as a baseball. Hide it in some random person's car. Put it in a bare room to see if it spontaneously combusts. Some of these ideas made no sense to her, but she wouldn't put it past Ben. He was never the brightest of the bunch.

"No! You flip it open to a random page and read the first thing you see. It's actually pretty fun. And some of the things in there make no sense at all. Watch." Ben opened the book to the first random page he found and read it. "#225: Never tell anyone they look tired or depressed." He closed it again, careful not to have it collapse to a million pages. "See. Fun."

Kevin rolled his eyes, not finding the joke. "Gwen's turn." He reached back and snatched the book from Ben before throwing it to the girl.

Catching it, she shrugged and closed her eyes. It could've spontaneously combusted. So it wasn't a terrible game. Her fingers found the cover and she flipped it open. "#34: Learn to identify the music of Chopin, Mozart, and Beethoven." Closing it again carefully, she said, "I already can do that."

Ben took the beat up object back and put it in the driver's lap. "Kevin's turn."

"But I'm driving!"

"We're at a stoplight, Levin," Ben pointed out, using his last name to lash out as the dark teen always used for him. "Just hurry before it turns green."

Sighing, Kevin opened it. "#139: Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have." He tossed it back at the brunette just as the light turned green again. "There. Happy now?" His deep brown gaze fell on Gwen. _If only you knew what I'm hoping for,_ Kevin thought. _Don't deprive me of it._ And his eyes flickered back on the road again. Gwen never noticed the change.

The rider in the backseat smiled, seeing the desperate look on the elder's face. Kevin was hoping for another good one next time. Ben flipped to a page and read, "#249: Hire people smarter than you." He let out a short chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Gwen asked as she took the book from him.

"I have Julie for that, but then why do I even bother with Kevin?" he said, still trying to contain his laughter. Julie was the one who helped him study. But Kevin was only there to help save the world from alien scum even though he _was_ alien scum and still is on most occasions.

Gwen rolled her perfect emerald eyes and took her turn. "#361: Never eat the last cookie." She looked up. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"And how are we going to finish the cookies if no one eats the last one?" Ben asked, actually wondering about the possibilities. "I mean, where are we going to get the cookies anyways?"

Kevin took the book with a grin on his face as they slowed to another stoplight. "Okay. Mine now." He flipped to a page. "#421: Take care of your reputation. It's your most valuable asset." And it was his turn to laugh. "And you guys doubt me!"

A hand reached from the backseat to take the item. "Now me," he said and opened it. "#62: Use your wit to amuse, not abuse."

"Yeah, Ben!" Kevin snickered. "Quit abusing me with that stupid wit of yours! You're not actually funny!"

Gwen smiled warmly as she took the book. "#43: Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen everyday." She looked to the boys. "Yup. I'll need a miracle to get you two to ever get along."

_And I'll need a miracle to get you to love me,_ Kevin thought regretfully.

_Miracles happen everyday, _Gwen thought with a cold ache in her heart. _If only a miracle would get him to tell me the truth I've been waiting to hear since we met again. I want him to tell me, not just Ben._

Ben saw the look they both wore on their faces. He was getting really sick of this. The lying. The ignoring. The avoiding. The abuse their feelings for each other took on. Finally, he wrapped his mind around an idea. Now it was just a waiting game. Waiting for his turn to come again.

Kevin felt the book rest on his leg again. "Hold on. I gotta focus on the road." He knew there wouldn't be a light for a while yet. "You guys can go on. Once we stop again, I'll go."

Ben took it. He'd wait another turn. Opening the book, he read the page. "#160: Use seat belts." He looked over his shoulder, tugging on the fabric holding him to the leather seats. "Already done."

"Oh darn," Kevin said, his hands resting on the steering wheel as the green and black car moved along the quiet road. "You won't die now even if I do crash."

The redheaded girl took a deep breath. "Mine now. #188: Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know."

"Too late!" Kevin laughed, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

Gwen passed the book to her cousin again as the car kept rolling along. Sometimes Kevin could be so sweet and incredibly amazing. Other times, she just wanted to kill him.

"#209: Observe the speed limit." He looked at Kevin and put his hand on the driver's shoulder. "Told you it's an instruction book, Kevin."

"Still driving," the dark boy answered coolly. His black gaze fell to the speedometer. The needle wasn't going much past sixty. "I _am_ going the speed limit."

"If we were on the highway," Ben snorted.

Gwen got the book from Ben's hands, vaguely remembering the pile up of speeding tickets in Kevin's glove compartment. She let her fingers find a page, the memory fading. "#292: Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river." A little smile spread across her face. "I guess it's a good thing we don't have many rivers around here." She reached back and dropped the item in Ben's open hands.

"#186: Be insatiably curious. Ask 'why' a lot." And Ben looked up. "Why?"

His cousin smiled. "I guess that's a start." She felt the car slowing and she saw a red light hanging from wires above the intersection. "Kevin."

The dark teenager took the tattered object from her. He flipped it open randomly. "#125: Know how to tie a bow tie." His eyes moved up the page a bit. "And #124 is know how to change a tire."

"You can't do the first, considering I've had to do it _for_ you, but you're an expert at the second," Ben snickered, remembering the time before Gwen's spring formal. It was so awkward, but hilarious to see Kevin so miserable in a tuxedo.

"Funny, Tennyson. I'll just remember that when you have a flat tire in the future."

Gwen took the book and gave it to Ben. "You're right. This is kind of fun." Especially since they weren't fighting as badly as they sometimes could.

"Told ya," Ben said before he read his number. "#362: Know when to keep silent."

Kevin held back a laugh. "Okay. Instead of listening to the ask why a lot, listen to that one. Keep your mouth shut for once in your life."

"Why?" Ben asked out of spite, still remembering what the instruction book had said before. He probably should ask why more. Like why did he even trust Kevin? And why wouldn't Gwen just tell Kevin that she loved him? And why hadn't he just commenced Plan Get-Gwen-and-Kevin-Together? _Dang._

The girl took the book quickly as Kevin tapped on the steering wheel, waiting for the light to change again. It was still red. Gwen cleared her throat and read, "#511: Call your mother." She laughed softly. "Now why in the world would I ever do that?"

Kevin grabbed the book out of Gwen's hands, ready to take his two missed turns quickly before the light changed again. "#68: Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference." His gaze fell to Gwen. _Being brave with her around is so much harder… _"#388: When undecided about what color to paint a room, choose antique white."

Ben took it quickly and flipped it open. "Why would you paint a room white, Kev? You'd paint it green with black stripes."

Gwen smiled, staring out the window. She had noticed Kevin go stiff for a moment. "And we are officially at Mr. Smoothie," she announced, seeing Ben's favorite place in most likely the whole world.

"One more round," Ben suggested. The other two nodded quickly in succession.

The driver started. "#356: Be there when people need you."

Gwen took the book and opened it to her page. "#296: Accept disappointment as a part of life." Her eyes fell to Kevin briefly before she passed the torn item to Ben.

And the page he found actually had something he was looking for. Part of his plan. "#456: Send your loved one flowers. Think of a reason later." He looked up, seeing Kevin tense for a moment. There was something behind the blackness of his eyes that showed him thinking hard.

With his turn over, the leader jumped out of the vehicle, dropping the book in his seat, and started towards the shack, leaving Kevin and Gwen alone.

Surprisingly, Kevin got out too. He disappeared with Ben.

Gwen reached back and flipped through the whole book in thirty minutes, soaking in all the lessons to be learned. When she looked up again, flowers were sitting in the driver's seat of Kevin's car. The girl hadn't noticed them being put there. Or the door opening. Or anything else. She reached over and grabbed them. A little tag was on them. _Gwen,_ it said._ I'm supposed come up with the reason later. Remind me in about an hour. Or tomorrow. I'll need a lot of time to think of one. Love, Kevin._

The boys were standing outside laughing to themselves. A smoothie in Ben's hand. A piece of alien tech in Kevin's.

The redhead sighed. _Finally._

A/N: Not exactly an argument, but I found this book and this idea just came. I love how it came out considering I would've put more in. But my mom wanted me to get off, and I only had like three hours. Hope you liked it! R&R

Here are some more of my favorites from '_Life's Little Instruction Book_':

#254: Keep it simple.

#360: Be prepared to lose once in a while.

#453: Keep a note pad and pencil on your bedside table. Million-dollar ideas sometimes strike at 3 A.M.

#119: Put a lot of little marshmallows in your hot chocolate.

#305: Learn to handle a handsaw and a hammer.

#434: At the movies, buy Junior Mints and sprinkle them on your popcorn.

#505: Be a leader. Remember that the lead sled dog is the only one with a decent view.

#509: Marry only for love.

#354: To explain a romantic break-up, simply say, "It was all my fault."

#484: Steer clear of restaurants that rotate.

#324: Don't delay acting on a good idea. Chances are someone else has just thought of it, too. Success comes to the one who acts first.

#99: Think big thoughts, but relish small pleasures.

#11: Sing in the shower.

#13: Learn to make great chili.

#26: If in a fight, hit first and hit hard.

#54: Surprise loved ones with little unexpected gifts.

#216: Don't discuss business in elevators. You never know who may overhear you.

#175: Give people a second chance, but not a third. (A/N: Kevin had better watch his back…)

'KAY BI NAO!!


	4. Breathe

A/N: Okay. I'm a little slow, but I blame that all on my parents. I'm convinced they're out to get me…

This one is a bit harder. Not quite a verbal argument, just one with themselves. Especially Kevin. He's pissed at himself and he's totally out of it and stuffz.

Breathe

He watched her for a moment. Her chest moved slowly, the air expanding in her lungs. Kevin sighed. Why did the world make everything so hard on him? He stared. He tried so hard. He'd risked his life. For what? Nothing. She didn't care. She never would. He was just some punky little teammate to her. That and a criminal.

The car felt so slow. Like he couldn't drive fast enough. He just watched her out of the corner of his eye, hoping that for only a moment, she would care about him as much as he cared about her.

Gwen smiled in her sleep. _Kevin,_ she thought. She could feel him. So close, but still so far away… She breathed. Her eyes moved quickly to take in his features. His black hair, barely hanging in his sweet, dark brown eyes. His eyes never gave anything away, making her study him harder, as if he were a book in a foreign language. As if he weren't already foreign enough… He was strong. Those arms were always tight around her when she wanted them to be. So tight. So close. She could hear his heart beating in his chest as he breathed deeply, taking in that moment to memorize it forever.

Kevin wouldn't let her go. He made sure he had every part of her locked into his heart and sealed away with all his love. He cared too much some days. And this was one of those times. Her eyes were always seemingly worried about him. That perfect green. He adored it. He craved it. And he tried to make them sparkle with amusement, always ready with some kind of lame one-liner that he didn't even think were funny sometimes. It was easy. She made him happy. She completed him in a way she would never understand. She was the only love he'd ever been able to keep and give in return. He would hold her. And he knew, that they were meant to be together. The way she pushed her hair behind her ear. He loved it. It was hard to find something he didn't like about her. Gwen's laugh was addictive. Worse than her smile. She could just be so happy. If only she would always be happy around him…

She was good and she tried to do a little bad, just for him to prove that he was wrong. He knew it and tried to change for her so she didn't have to. She was too perfect. He was too damaged. He wasn't a very good choice to be near. Or to love. She loved him anyways. He was like a drug. She couldn't get enough, but it was so bad for her. So very bad…

His foot fell harder on the gas. The needle moved past eighty. His mind was racing. His eyes were on her. The desert on the sides of the highway flew past. They'd been out of town on a tech deal. Gwen wouldn't let him go alone. And there was no real need to involve Ben. The less he knew, the better.

She was amazing, but she loved the delinquent. The one that was the worst possible match for her.

He tried to turn himself around so he could be more like her. He was ready to become something better.

Maybe they could meet somewhere in the middle.

It was just hard to get there.

Air caught in his throat as bright yellow and white lights shone right in his eyes. He turned the car quickly, trying to avoid the inevitable. "Oh sh-" Kevin couldn't finish his words.

Metal crunched as the impact totally crushed the entire car.

Too fast.

Not enough focus.

His control was weak.

His mind was on her.

His heart racing.

Praying for a miracle.

Praying to save her.

Wanting to live another day.

She was too distracting.

She was his fate.

It was their destiny.

Gwen felt the pain running through her before she even knew she was waking. "Wha-"

Ben was by her side in an instant. He was babbling. She struggled to listen.

Something about Kevin.

A semi-truck.

His car.

Destroyed.

And that's what she was. Destroyed. He had saved her yet again. And it was the last time he ever would. Ever could. But he would still try. He always would. He was Kevin. He would never stop caring. Never.

A tear rolled down her cheek. Gwen drank in the air of the world without Kevin.

Ben was talking again. Something about a miracle.

A miracle? How could Kevin's death be a miracle?

"He save-"

"He-"

"Don't-"

"Gwen…" Ben just went quiet, understanding her pain. She wasn't going to listen for awhile yet, struggling to accept it all. He was feeling the same pain. Kevin had been doing better. He'd behaved more often. He'd tried harder to regain their trust after every incident of destruction and betrayal.

Her emerald eyes closed as more tears escaped. He wasn't gone. He wouldn't be. He couldn't be. He was Kevin Levin. The one who'd survived the Null Void. The one who had challenged the holder of the Omnitrix. The one who had teamed with Vilgax. The one that never backed down. The one that never died in a fight. And he was gone. He'd crashed. Not a fight, a crash. She never thought she'd see the day come. The day where she cried over Kevin.

Memories came back. She'd been searching the wreckage. Half the car had been blown totally off with the semi-truck. Kevin's half. Gwen's side had been pretty much crushed as she slept, out of harm's way.

His last second swerve had been the only thing between Gwen's death and survival. She'd still felt the agony of the windshield shattering across her, the glass embedding itself in her skin and clothing. Her side had been tossed a bit further away, rolling across the road. She was bruised and scraped, but that wouldn't stop her.

She'd gotten up, staggering out of the car, trying hard not to fall to the grip of unconsciousness that already had a faint hold on her. She moved slowly towards the tipped over semi and the other half of Kevin's car. Her heart ached as she breathed in the scene. The whole front end was demolished. His car was annihilated. How would he deal with it? That was her first thought. Then her second. Was he even alive?

He was Kevin. He _had_ to be alive.

Racing faster, she tried to hope for a miracle. Just one little miracle. She wanted him to be alive. To be safe. To be Kevin.

She could picture the crash and how he had taken it all. His face echoed in her head. His brown eyes, pained. Light reflecting off his face. His panic.

One thing she'd never seen him do. Panic. It wasn't in his nature. It wasn't him. She just wanted him back now, criminal and all. That guy that she had wanted, but never had the courage to get.

Gwen stumbled over her own feet, falling forward. There was a voice. Only for a moment. Calling her name. Calling for her. In her memory, she knew the voice. But it wasn't the one she'd been so desperate to hear. It wasn't Kevin.

Ben was still beside her in the hospital room.

He was saying he was the first to find her.

That explained the voice.

He said that she'd be fine with some rest.

She asked about Kevin.

Ben only looked to the door, avoiding the question.

Gwen asked what had happened.

Ben explained quickly that the car was going too fast. Nearly a hundred miles per hour when it hit the semi. Kevin was speeding almost desperately. Neither driver was drunk, exactly. Except Kevin. Gwen was his drug of choice. She had taken over his whole being. He was drifting into the other lane and tried to avoid the crash at the last minute. It saved Gwen. It was the only reason she was still alive.

Then the door opened. Gwen was still lost in her thoughts and grief. Kevin was gone. He was gone.

"Hey, Ben, she awake yet?"

Her eyes shot open. That was the voice she craved. Just to hear it one last time.

And he was standing there.

Perfectly fine in every possible way.

His eyes were still brown. His body was still in one piece. He was still Kevin. And he would never change that. And she wouldn't try to. She cared about him too much.

Kevin smiled after a moment, seeing his favorite girl lying there, those emerald eyes open, tears spilling over. "Gwen, what's wrong?" he asked quickly, moving to be closer to her. He had to know she was fine. She had to be fine. If there was one little scratch on her perfect little head, he'd blame himself. He'd hurt her. He'd never forgive himself. He sat on the side of her bed.

"Kevin," she murmured, throwing her arms around his neck. She breathed him in. "Kevin, you're okay." The sound of his heart beating was a relief. He was alive. It wasn't a dream.

"Of course I am!" he laughed weakly, his arm snaking around her waist. He was still working out ways to explain why he had crashed. Then it occurred to him. Why had he crashed? Where was his focus? Why was he so careless?

"But how-"

He moved slightly and kissed her. All the words unsaid. They would stay that way. He was only glad she was alive. She wasn't going to leave him. Not today.

She promised herself that this would be everyday from now on. She'd hurt herself just to feel his lips against hers. The passion that he would never show was there. He had a heart. It was buried. But it was beating. Just another day. One more day of being with him. One more day of his stupid jokes. And another day near him. A little shiver ran down her spine.

Kevin pulled away shortly. "You're cold," he muttered softly, holding her close to his chest.

"No. I was just enjoying it," she sighed. She wished he hadn't moved an inch away from her. It'd be another inch she suffered away from him. "Tell me what happened."

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "It was an accident. I was tired-"

"That's a lie. You were perfectly fine before I went to sleep."

"Fine in what way?" he laughed. Another one of those stupid jokes.

She rolled her eyes. He could be so… She couldn't bring herself to keep searching for something wrong with him. He was alive. That was what mattered. Gwen smiled. "In every way." She traced small circles on his chest, memorizing every inch of him. Now she understood. She finally knew why he had taken in every moment. He had known something would happen. Someday. Because that one moment may be their last. And he wasn't going to let it go for anything. She looked up, her lips desperately seeking his once more.

He was warm and comforting. Kevin's love was fierce. He was still memorizing so he wouldn't forget. His mind still stuck on how he had risked losing her. And her losing him. It wouldn't happen again.

Something occurred to her. "How did you survive? Your car was destroyed."

"I absorbed the roof. It was enough to cover me and you in the second the truck hit. So when you were rolling away, the armor was still protecting you a bit. And that's the only reason you made it. The truck would've crushed you…"

"Kevin," Gwen whispered, her arms tightly around him. Letting him go… It wasn't possible. "It's okay. We're fine." She leaned into him, wishing for more.

"No, it's not. You could've-"

"I could die in a fight with DNAliens, but you don't stop me," she pointed out. She kissed him again, knowing that he wouldn't refuse.

He pulled away shortly, still feeling guilty. "Gwen, I barely saved you."

"But you did."

"And if I had died?"

She refused to think of it. "Kevin, tell me something."

He blinked, waiting for a question.

"Why do I still hurt even with your shield and you're not even scratched?"

"The car tumbled a lot, Gwen."

"But you were crushed!"

"My armor was stronger. It's natural on me. It was all blown off in a few seconds, but it was long enough for me to get out. And I'm not totally unscathed."

Gwen stared up at him. She didn't know he could comprehend big words.

He squirmed out of her arms for a moment. Kevin pulled up his shirt a bit to reveal a large, deep cut across his ribcage. "It stings, but it should heal pretty fast."

"How do you know it's not serious?"

"I don't know. I didn't even think until…" He remembered the lights. "Gwen, I'm so sorry." Those words wouldn't mean enough. He wouldn't forgive himself. She could've _died._ Losing her wasn't an option.

"It's okay."

"And Ben said he'd help. But I told him we had to wait. He'd use all the Omnitrix's energy healing me and if anything happened to you-"

"Go find him."

"Why?" Kevin whined. He was finally enjoying a moment alone with Gwen. Already, she wanted him gone. He saved her life and was still risking his own to keep her safe. Why was it all so hard? She should be thanking him. She should be grateful. Yet he only wanted to agree. His drug was telling him to leave it…

Gwen touched the deep wound. It was still very red and threatening to bleed more. "Ben needs to fix this. Now."

"But you-"

"No. Kevin, I love you too much to let you be in pain any longer."

"But-" Then the words struck him again like being slapped in the face. Not pain, but it shocked him. Three out of fifteen words. _I love you._ They froze him for an instant. "Alright," he agreed slowly, beginning to wrap his mind around the concept. "But Gwen?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you too," he breathed, kissing her forehead.

Ben was standing outside the door for awhile, fake gagging. Just the idea of his cousin and _Kevin _was disgusting. How would that affect the team?

He looked in the window. Gwen seemed happier than he had seen her in forever. And Kevin… His features were harder to read. But he looked relaxed. Almost peaceful. Ben had to breathe and think it over. Maybe this change between them was for the best. That didn't mean he exactly had to like it, but it was better than them fighting. Or worse. Dead. He sighed.

A/N: Okay, I would never in a million years kill off Kevin. He is waaaayyyyy too good to be killed!!! Especially in a crash!!! Although if he did die because of a crash, he'd probably be distracted by Gwen or the other driver was drunk. So I think it turned out pretty well and I was going to have their sentences all cut off halfway. Just for the fun of it. But I had to explain how they both survived. This took all morning. Hope you like it! R&R, plz?


	5. Kevin's Home

**A/N: Okay, I've loved the feedback I got. Thank you soooooooo much!!!! It makes me feel like my stuff is actually good. Lol. So here's another. I kinda wing it cuz that seems to be easier… Wish this one luck!!!**

**Kevin's Home**

A redheaded girl entered the garage. "Kevin?" she called, hoping he was there. His car was there. Odds were, so was he.

Gwen looked in the green car, running her fingers over the cool metal framework. She loved his car even if it came before her sometimes in the owner's eyes. It was easy to relax in. Cool and calming, to sit in that passenger seat beside him and wish that one day she would be able to rest her head on his shoulder as the car rolled along. She knew she was still important to him. Very important. Maybe more than she could understand…

A form moved in the backseat. A blanket was pulled higher over a warm, pale body. Dark hair cast shadows over the face in the faded sunlight of the morning.

She looked in, trying to focus on the face.

Sure enough, Kevin was sleeping in the backseat.

_Did he even leave the garage? Why doesn't he go home?_ Gwen thought. _Someone has to be taking care of him. He said something about his mom after we got our Plumber's badges. Where's she? Why doesn't she call and tell him to get his butt home?_

He rolled over enough to nearly fall, but miraculously, he stayed on the seat.

_Oh my god._ The realization hit Gwen._ He lives in his car._

It explained why he took care of it so much. It was his home and his life, not just a car. That thing was the only thing he could really rely on to always be a comfort. It was more expensive than an apartment, but it also doubled as transportation, which made it cheaper than the two put together. After a bit more thinking, it made sense.

_He can't stay like this. What if his car is stolen? He won't have anywhere to live. He'll be staying on the streets again, alone and broken. The streets could change him back. Back to the old Kevin. _Gwen knew how much it meant to him, but she didn't understand the full extent of his love for that vehicle. Her mind told her not to bother him about it, but something in her heart knew she had to help. _I won't let that happen._

But how? He'd say it was fine. He'd even deny it if that'd get her to ignore the problem. Maybe his obsession was already too deep.

Kevin shifted again, the sunlight through the windshield bugging him. He put his hand over his face, trying to block it out.

_This isn't good for him. What if he parks in the sun and dies of heatstroke? _The thought of the dark teen accidentally dead, killed by his own car and stupid mistakes… She wouldn't accept it. Finally gaining the courage, she knocked on the window.

Kevin bolted upright. He hit his head on the roof of the car.

Gwen couldn't help but smile. The boy was funny when he didn't even try. Just the dumbest things could spark a little laugh. She opened the car door. "Kev, it's just me."

"Oh." He put a hand on his head, making sure there wasn't any serious damage. His deep brown eyes met Gwen's perfect emerald green. "When did you get here? It's early." Kevin looked out to see the sun barely rising over the buildings in the distance. "Really, really early." The car's clock read eight o'clock

"I wanted to see if you'd finished working on your car yet," she lied. There really was no reason to visit him in the garage. Just to see his face. That always seemed to be a good enough reason to check on him.

Kevin looked around him. Sleeping in the car. _Crap._ Not exactly something good. "Yeah. I finished just after you left." _Now what, Gwendolyn? Now what?_

"And you stayed in your car all night?"

He tried to think. "I was too tired to drive home."

"What does your mom say about that?"

"We don't talk much when _the step's_ around."

"Ah." Gwen had finally put it all together.

He didn't go home for a reason. His stepfather. It always involved a fight or some kind of pain. Mental or physical, it didn't matter. He wasn't about to stay with his mom. It wasn't a terrible thing. The car was fine. Could've been worse, right? "Yeah." Kevin took a deep breath and threw the blanket on the floor. "But whatever. I'm good on my own. No problems."

Gwen stared for a few minutes. He was shirtless. Totally freaking shirtless. It wasn't right to stare, but she couldn't help it. He was just so amazing…

Kevin shrugged. "And besides, it's kinda nice living on my own. No rules, no curfew. I have my own rules though. Seven hours of sleep minimal. Car must be clean…ish." He gave a short laugh.

She sighed. "Kevin-"

"Don't tell anyone," he said. "They'll make me stay with my mom and that _thing_."

"Just take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will," he murmured. "I promise."

Gwen kissed the dark teen's cheek before leaving. "Maybe someday you can take me to meet your mom. Someday when the step's gone," she called over her shoulder and disappeared around a corner.

Kevin smiled weakly. He pulled on a shirt. It was gonna be a good day.

**A/N: A lot of FanFics have Kevin with an apartment, but I can't see him with one. So I always imagined him living in his car. Or with his mom cuz he isn't legal yet but since the whole stepdad thing it's gotta be hard on him. So this is my theory for him. Just thought I'd voice it instead of reading all these stories of his so-called "apartment". Lol. R&R plz!!**


	6. A Plan Including Devlin

**A/N: OKAY!! BRILLIANT BRAIN!! It got another idea and I just finished the last chapter. So I'm writing more today!! Be happy!! And Kevin 11,000 never happened. He's too good for that nao. lol**

**A Plan Including Devlin**

Devlin looked at his parents. His mom had dinner in her lap. It was fast food since neither she or her husband could cook. Or at least cook _well_ that is. He smiled remembering the last time their house had almost burned down. His mother's fault. His father had given up on trying anymore. Probably for the best. Anymore house fires and the police would have them arrested for starting the fires on purpose. Even if Gwen was the Ben 10,000's cousin, they weren't above the law. Especially when Kevin was involved.

"So any plans for tonight?" Kevin asked.

"Nothing. We can all just stay inside for once." Gwen let out a long sigh, resting her head on her husband's shoulder. "Finally. Some peace and quiet."

"Good." He put his arm around her and looked over his shoulder at Devlin.

Devlin grinned. Seeing his parents like that never got old. They always seemed so happy together in the worst of situations. Even when the house was gone (which was pretty often nowadays). Uncle Ben and Kenny always let them stay at their place. Sometimes not Kevin, but close enough.

Life was pretty good. Could've been worse in Kevin's eyes. They could all be stuck living on the streets. He would never let that happen. Yup. Definitely could be worse. There were fights, but it was always a brighter day tomorrow. That's what they all told themselves. So far, it was working.

Gwen ran her fingers through Kevin's hair, glad that they were finally together fifteen years later after everything happened when they were still a team with Ben. "Got any homework, Devlin?" she asked.

"Nope," her son replied quickly. He was ready for a peaceful Friday night. Some video games with Ken. Maybe watching some tv with his parents.

Kevin kept one hand on the wheel and placed the other on Gwen's knee. He reached sneakily for the bag of dinner even though he knew it was pointless to try. Nothing ever got past her.

Gwen swatted him away. "Don't even try."

"It'd be safer back here with me," Devlin pointed out, hoping she'd see things his way. He'd be able to get to his dinner faster.

"I'm not letting either of you have it, boys." Gwen smiled warmly. They could all have a good time even sitting in that old car. Just relaxing with a bit of time as a family.

Devlin nearly snarled aloud. He had to bite his tongue to keep it from slipping out.

The car slid along the road. Kevin would never give up that car even if they invented new cars that could fly and be fighter jets at the same time. Never in a million years.

"Ben's letting us stay at his place tonight, right?" Kevin asked his wife softly, taking his eyes off the road for only a minute to look at her lovingly. He adored her. She was all he wanted and he finally had it. And Devlin. The boy was great. Better than he was at that age. Good grades, less anger, and a better attitude.

"Yeah. He says we can come over whenever."

The only thing that sucks about being Kevin Levin's son: his powers. The whole Anodite thing skipped a generation. Again. Absorbing electricity was another issue about having the house gone every few days (good thing Kevin had enough friends to have it rebuilt quickly). Devlin tried to keep it under control, but it was all so much harder. How had his father been able to get by?

He even looked like his father. Deep muddy brown eyes. Slight build. Shaggy black hair hanging in his face. Then there's the added the legacy of being a total monster, making it harder to earn everyone's trust. If only it had been anyone else. Anyone. But then he wouldn't be Devlin. He'd be someone totally different.

And there's the suffering from normal tragedies that seem to occur everyday. House on fire. Something spontaneously combusting. It had become natural

Kevin was usually able to put a fire out in a matter of seconds. Gwen would grab Devlin and keep him away from the danger until she was sure it was all over. She hardly ever worried about her husband. He was a big boy. He could take care of himself. Most of the time…

In the worst of times, they always seemed to make it through. The boy liked that. They never suffered, never starved. Kevin would never let that happen. He always swore to it.

Gwen told Devlin of his father's past. Being bad and alone on the streets. Killing, fighting, stealing. But also of how he'd changed. Never had he heard anything from Kevin. The stories were only from his mother.

"How long till we're at Uncle Ben's?" Devlin asked.

Ben wasn't really his uncle. But close enough, right? There were enough lineages to go through without remembering specifics. Mostly on Gwen's side of the family. Kevin's, nothing. Just his grandmother and grandfather.

"A few more minutes," Kevin said from the driver's seat. "Just wait a little longer."

Devlin sank deeper into the seat, staring out the windshield.

His father looked over his shoulder and winked.

Time for 'Plan Devlin'.

It was fool proof. Even if the only two who knew about it were the fools.

So maybe it wasn't quite fool proof.

"Are you sure you don't want me to hold that?" Kevin asked one more time, gesturing to the bag in Gwen's lap. His eyes met hers.

"Yes, I'm sure!" she laughed, holding it just out of his reach. "Quit asking and keep driving! We would be there by now if you'd just get a different and faster car!"

"Just remember, this is the car that we had our first real kiss in and you loved this car."

"No, _you_ loved this car."

"But you love it too because you love me, right?"

Gwen touched her lips to his for a moment. "Yes, Kevin. Now shut up and keep driving."

Definitely not fool proof.

Kevin looked back at his son and gave a little shrug. His eyes sparkled with disappointment and joy. Either way, they'd plotted it together. Bonding time. Something Devlin spent more with Kenny instead of his father and Kevin was always busy with some kind of new job. He couldn't keep one very well, but he wouldn't stop trying. Anything for his family.

At the signal of a little nod, Devlin smiled. "Hey, Mom?"

"Yes?" Gwen replied, her gaze flicking back to her son.

"Where do babies come from?"

Gwen face went pale for a moment and her green eyes grew wide and round before she instantly vanished leaving Kevin and Devlin alone in the car.

The two cracked up, finding it hilarious beyond belief.

"Did you see her face?!" Kevin laughed.

"Oh yeah!" Devlin chuckled. He gave his father a high-five. "It didn't work very well, but it was still funny!"

"It worked alright!" Kevin said with a snicker. "I never said we had to have the food. As long as she got that horrified look on her face!" He patted the passenger seat. "Get up here."

The boy jumped to the seat and yelled, "I call shotgun!"

"Now she can't argue!" Kevin said, ruffling his son's hair. He breathed for a few seconds before saying, "That was awesome."

"Love you, Dad," Devlin said softly.

Kevin leaned over and kissed his son's forehead. "Love you too."

The car rolled onward as Ben's house appeared in the distance.

**A/N: this has been on my mind for a while. Kevin is amazing. He learned from his issues and this kinda showed how I picture him in about fifteen years. Still a delinquent. Still troublesome. And HILARIOUS!! R&R plz! And yush ik da title is very very sucky.**


	7. Theft

****

A/N: It's been like a week or so… srry. BUT TONIGHT IS 'IN CHARM'S WAY'!!!! I'm guessing Charmcaster's back. Ahem. People put up FanFics before the epis cum out and it bugss me. So I've been trying really hard on this one because it's prob gunna b a lot better than sum of the others. This one kinda goes along the lines of 'Kevin's Home'. Gwen thought of a lot of things that could go wrong with Kevin living in his car, but she missed one very, very important one that I thought of and found hilarious!! So I'm writing it! And thank you for reviewing!! Luff u all!!! (actually, I pretty much luff anyone…)

**Disclaimer: (I remembered it this time!!!! TAKE THAT!!) I don't own Ben 10: Alien Force. If I did, that'd be the coolest thing in the world, but I doubt Man of Action would let me buy it for my lack of an allowance…. 'KAY NAO READ!!!**

**Theft**

Kevin opened his eyes and held the back of his head feeling it wet and sticky. "Ouch." The last memory was of sleeping in the car. Now he was waking up with a massive headache and blood flowing from a wound. He felt the car rumbling beneath him through the dark night. The engine purred loudly as it spurred over ninety miles an hour. That needle on the speedometer must've been working hard. And he wasn't driving it. "What the-"

Duct tape came out of nowhere and covered his mouth, catching on his ebony black hair and sticking to his face. He struggled a bit, but gave up after a moment. A fight in his car would only lead to destruction. Of either him or the car. Poor car. Odds were looking bad for it. Destroying the car would mean possible death, more maintenance, and the idea of crashing it didn't exactly appeal to Kevin.

"Keep him quiet or we may have to blow his head off."

The dark teen's gorgeous brown eyes widened. _BLOW MY HEAD OFF?! WHAT ABOUT MY CAR?! WHERE'S THE DAMAGE THERE?! YOU'LL, LIKE, DESTROY IT! DUH! DOES MY CAR DESERVE THAT?! I DON'T THINK SO!_

He felt his hands being tied together and held perfectly still. _Dead still,_ he thought with a little laugh inside his head. He'd have to remember that one for Ben later on when he told him the story. But dying wasn't exactly a joke… Oh well.

Nothing to absorb… yet. He looked around for any sort of way out. A man was driving his car along the highway. Dark hair hung out from under the ski mask. Another was in the backseat tying him up. As his senses regained power from the blow to the back of his head, he coul

faintly hear the sirens from behind the car.

_No one steals my car. No one._ Kevin wrestled to gain the upper hand while still trying to keep the leather seats of the car in one piece. The man held him down easily. His dirty blonde dreadlocks hung in the teen's face. "You keep quiet and you won't get hurt." His voice was harsh and cracked. "We don't want to kill you, but it may be our only option if you keep this up."

"But we'll have to kill him anyways. He already knows too much. He'll be able to identify us in a line-up and then we'll be in prison. It'd be better if he was dead."

Okay, I'm dying here. It's getting worse and worse and worse and worse-

"Yeah, but it's better to build his confidence," the other pointed out.

_-and worse and worse and worse-_

"Then he'll want to fight back."

"True."

He shrugged. "I still say we kill him. Execution style."

_-and worse and worse and worse times infinity. What __**is**__ worse times infinity? I should ask Gwen these things…_

Both men fell silent.

Kevin tried to bite at the covering over his mouth and only succeeded in tasting the nasty tape. It was sticky and metallic. Mostly sticky. _This is getting me nowhere, _he thought. _But I won't step it up a notch until I'm out of the car. It'd just be more destruction and more time fixing it later. Well, I'm going to have to fix it later anyways._

The man in the driver's seat suddenly swerved the car off road and into the thick, dense pine trees.

_They're going to total my car…_ He was losing his hope. Maybe they'd accidentally kill him and crash the car. Then it'd all be over. No car. A dead Kevin. Sucky death. No Gwen. That last thought hit him almost harder than being slapped in the face. He couldn't die without Gwen.

Her face ran through his mind, every moment they had ever been close. That first comforting hug. Her sleeping peacefully in his car. The dance. Oh the dance… That was one of the more memorable times. He had to have another one of those. Just all alone with the redheaded beauty one last time would be enough to get him through the afterlife, but he didn't have time for another heart-felt moment like that. Kevin had to get out. Fast.

The car jerked and bumped as it crashed over the dirt and mud that splattered across the paint job. It brought Kevin back to his sad but true reality.

One of the men pressed a button that they thought turned on the windshield wipers.

_Not that one! Anything but that one! Well maybe not anything, but definitely __**not**__ that one!_

The rockets on the back of the car came on. Suddenly, the three were shooting forward at light speed, crashing through trees unharmed. Good thing trees just snap into when a car that's driving at light speed hits them or else the car would've been trashed in a matter of seconds and the engine would've died quickly.

Both men were screaming bloody murder. Kevin was only in the back, struggling to laugh beneath the disgusting tape. It still tasted nasty. There was no way they'd be able to survive the tortures of his car. Especially when they had no clue on how to work even the simplest things. Jets, flying, guns, and best of all, the obvious fact that it was awesome. No way they could handle it. Never in a million years.

"How do you stop it?!"

"I dunno!"

And Kevin sat there in the backseat, cracking up. It was hilarious. Their panic versus his knowledge. There was no competition. They'd have to let him go so he could drive the car the way he knew would work.

"Untie him! Make it stop!"

Playing right into his hands. His cruel, criminal hands.

"OW!" Kevin let out a short yelp as the tape was ripped off. "You know that you could just be nice about things or at least give me a warning! A few words would suffice!"

"MAKE IT STOP!"

"I mean, you could've said, 'I'll count to three and then rip it off'. That's be good enough, but no, you had to go and hurt my poor innocent face. What did I ever do to you? What? My face not good enough to be spared the tortures of tape? That stuff really hurts, you know. It could like rip my skin off or, like, what if I was trying to grow a mustache? Huh? Then what? You just gonna rip off my mustache like that?"

One man held a gun to the teen's head. "Tell us or we blow your head off."

He shrugged. "You already said you're gonna blow my head off anyways. What's the use? I'd just be saving you another few minutes and helping with your escape. That's helping a criminal. I'm pretty sure I could go to prison for that. I've heard prison's not a good place. So I'll just let you two get caught or die."

He pulled the safety on the gun.

"I'm not gonna go to prison. It's against my nature." _The Null Void is more my speed. It's nicer and they've got those pretty little octopus looking guardians that can fly and try to eat me. It makes living so much more of a challenge. Sometimes more fun when I can win. A lot more fun. Then there's more aliens for me to fight and some old colleagues then some allies. But I love those guardians. Almost more than I love- Can't think of her. It hurts too much. If I'm dead, she'll find someone else…_

"Kid, are you ready to die?" He pointed out the windshield.

A cliff loomed in the distance.

"Okay, okay." Kevin jumped over the console into the passenger seat that Gwen was usually in, struggling around his bonds to get there. He was glad the girl wasn't with him when this happened. It'd be a nightmare. She'd… She'd probably be the one getting him out of the situation while destroying his innocent car in the process. "Here's what you're going to do." He pressed buttons and the steering wheel was suddenly opened up and taken into the dashboard of the car. It reappeared on the passenger's side only a few moments later. "This car is mine and only I get to drive it. Got that? So you morons are going to sit there and behave." He looked over his shoulder at the man with the gun. "And give me that thing."

The moron handed it over without thinking.

* * *

"Hey, Gwen?" Ben called into the kitchen as he watched the news. "Have you seen this?"

The redhead came back into her cousin's living room with a bowl of popcorn in her hands. "Um, no." She looked closely at the police chase on the television. Most of it was being filmed from a helicopter from the news channel. "Is that Kevin's car?!" she asked in shock. "There is no way that could be him! He's changed!" Her mind raced to the times he had reverted back, but only momentarily. This couldn't be any different, could it?

"This has been going on for about an hour," the brunette said. "It's actually better than that movie I had. Guess Sumo Slammers is going to have to wait until this is over."

"Kevin," Gwen moaned. Her mind was still distracted on the thought of him reverting back to his criminal self. _He wouldn't. He's different._

Ben paused the news for a moment. He was grateful for a good tv that could do that. "Look right there." He pointed into the car's window on the screen. "Don't lie to me. Who is that?" He ran his fingers over the dark hair and face.

Sure enough, Kevin was in the passenger seat.

"That _is_ him, but something is definitely wrong. He's in the passenger seat and obviously not driving."

"He flipped out after I drove it when we were with Paradox. So you're right," Ben agreed. "Something's wrong." He squinted trying to focus on the . "Oh wait. He is driving. See? There's the cute black steering wheel and his hands on it even though… his hands are tied and they're red and sticky looking… Is that blood? What the heck did he do to get in that kind of trouble?"

"Oh my god. We have to help him." Gwen quickly ran to the door to slip her shoes on.

"Is that a gun?" Ben asked, a bit shocked to see it. He had better alien tech than that. Why use something utterly useless against aliens?

She looked back to Ben, desperation burning in her glowing green eyes. "Are you coming some time soon? He needs us!"

Ben jumped up. "Yeah, yeah, sure."

* * *

Kevin flicked some switches, turning off the rockets on the back. The roaring became quieter to just the rumbling of the engine at top speed.

"So how in the world did you get this car to do that?" the one man asked from the back seat. His eyes were wide with fear.

"Who said anything about this world?" Kevin snickered. He let the car roll off the cliff, still at over a hundred miles an hour. "There is a whole universe out there. I could be an alien for all you know."

At the bottom were monstrous stalactites, ready to shred the metal of the car to pieces.

_Fun time._

* * *

Ben stared at the tv only a second longer while Gwen looked for her coat. It was probably in a closet somewhere, but he didn't think to mention it. "He just went off a cliff…"

"KEVIN DID WHAT NOW?!" The girl raced back to her cousin, nearly tripping down the stairs over her own feet. She watched as the green car with its jet black racing stripes fell into the dark abyss below. Doomed.

"Oh, he is _so_ screwed. No way he can ever pull out of that now." Ben leaned back on the couch in defeat. "Even if he had the right equipment in that thing, there is no way he can pull almost a one eighty to get the car out before it hits." He sighed and watched the tv longer as the reporters went on about more crud with the news. Boring. "Guess we'll just have to fight alien scum without him now."

Gwen's eyes filled with cold, salty tears. "What happened? Why would he do this to himself?" She fell into the sofa next to her cousin.

"Suicide?" Ben offered. It just occurred to him how much his cousin really did care about the ex-con.

"He's smarter than that. I don't think he'd do that to me."

"To you?" the boy asked. "The world doesn't revolve around you, Gwen." He knew she had a big ego sometimes, but this was worse than normal. She'd never said anything aloud about her relationship with Kevin. This was new for Ben to see her show a serious emotion other than anger towards the older teen.

She brushed her hair out of her eyes as the tears slid down her face. "Ben, what are we going to do?" The redhead buried her face in her cousin's chest. She wished _he_ was Kevin. Safe and with her. Not driving off cliffs somewhere. Not dead.

* * *

Kevin laughed hysterically as the men kept screaming like little girls. He made a mental note to self to never scream like that in the future. Ever. Then before any of them could blink, the car was shooting upwards again faster than it had ever moved before. And Kevin laughed harder. It was going to be more fun torturing them than it would be just turning them in shortly and sweetly. "So how about we take a trip?"

"NO!" the one in the driver's seat shrieked.

"PUT IT BACK DOWN! LET US GO!"

"I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!"

"LORD, DON'T LET HIM KILL US!"

He rolled his eyes and grinned. _This is gonna be a long night._ _Fun, but long._ The car flew past a helicopter.

The cameraman caught great footage.

* * *

That face flashed past. Ben rewound it quickly and paused it at an exact spot. "Look," he murmured.

Kevin's face was on the screen. Blood was on his cheeks and forehead, some dripping into his eyes. And there was a maniacal smile on his pale face. He was laughing like some twisted psychopath.

"What the heck has he done?" Gwen asked. She leaned into Ben for comfort and stared at that face she'd been watching for so long, hoping for that moment when he'd finally say something more than just an insult or lame joke. "That suicide apparently didn't work. So there's gotta be something else."

Then she saw it. "The guys. They're in the car. Who are they?"

"No clue," Ben replied, studying them for a second. "But at least Kevin's not dead, right?"

Gwen nodded with a content sigh. "You're right. He's not dead. He's fine." Her emerald eyes glittered. _He's fine. _Her thoughts buzzed around him. Kevin's eyes. His face. His hair. He was like an addiction that can't be beat. A drug that has no cure. She breathed a bit easier, knowing that she'd be able to see him again, living and breathing. "I want Kevin."

"KID, YOU ARE CRAZY!"

"So?"

"YOU'RE NOT REALLY GONNA LEAVE US HERE ARE YOU?!"

"Yes, yes I am."

"IS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE?!"

"IT BURNS!"

"IT REALLY, REALLY HURTS, KID!"

"LET'S US GO OR WE'LL SHOOT YOU!"

"With what?"

"WE HAVE A GUN!"

"Which I 'borrowed'." Kevin put up the air quotes. "This isn't torture. This is simply a test of your ability."

The two men were hanging from a tree by their underwear. A torture that used to be used frequently on Ben. Kevin didn't use it by choice on his newly found friend, but it was better on criminals. Especially car thieves. _No one steals my car. No one._

"ABILITY OF WHAT?!"

"Pain tolerance," the teen replied coolly. "I'll be back in three hours."

"YOU'RE GONNA LEAVE US?!"

"Yes, yes I am."

"WHAT?!"

"You don't just steal a guy's car when he's sleeping in it!" Kevin hissed. "Don't you know the mechanic's code? Number five: Never steal another dude's car. Also, never steal a dude's car WHEN HE'S SLEEPING IN IT!"

"WHY?!"

"My car is my home for cryin' out loud! Everything I own is in there! You can't just expect me to buy another one of these! It's really old! I had to have Paradox give me a new one after Ben totaled it last time! No one is going to steal it from me. I won't let them," Kevin lectured. "So what have we learned today?"

"Don't steal a dude's car," the first sighed.

"Don't steal a car that a dude's sleeping in," the other answered.

"And?" Kevin asked.

"And being a criminal is wrong?" one man offered.

"Yes, it is. And what else?"

The other thought for a moment. "You're a terrible person?"

"I learned that a long time ago," the dark teen laughed quietly, his deep brownish black eyes shining with the humor. Gwen would disapprove of it, but Kevin knew it was right.

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Good. Now think about it for a few hours. I shall be sleeping in my car. My phone alarm will go off and then we will see if you've learned anything by then." He retreated to his car. The paint was chipped off in most places, but he could always fix that. No problem. Just ask for a bit of money to make sure that it got fixed and he would be set until it was destroyed next time. Easy.

* * *

Ben looked around the site, hoping for a sign of the missing teen. "Maybe he jumped out when the car went over the cliff…" he thought, giving Gwen an idea. "He might've absorbed something and fell down there. He's probably alive somewhere."

"I can't trace him. His mana it just, like, disappeared. I'd need something he touched or walked on. Anything! But he was in his car…" Gwen sighed. "He's gone!" She stared at her shoes and folded her arms across her chest as the night air's chill got to her exposed arms.

"It's alright," the brunette breathed. He walked over to her and quietly held her for a while. "We can find him."

"Not if he's dead," Gwen sobbed. She hadn't realized that the tears had finally broken free. Her voice was choked and broken. "Ben, we could've stopped him. I knew. I knew that something could go wrong. I knew, but he didn't want me to tell. And I love him and that's why I didn't. I trusted Kevin not to go off and do something stupid like this and he did and now he's dead! He's dead! It's my fault! I could've stopped it!"

Ben didn't try to stop her. She'd only argue more. He held her and rocked her in his arms. She needed him more than ever. "You should've told him sooner."

"Told him what?"

"Told him how you really felt," Ben told her. "Then he might not have done anything stupid. Like this." He looked at her carefully. "You could've stopped him. He would've been fine. He could've been here with us. Gwen, you can't take care of him just because you think he'd be fine. He wanted you just as much."

She only sniffled. "I know. He just never admitted it. He was crazy for not saying anything."

"Well he's not here right now. Let's not blame it on him."

Gwen had to breathe deeply for awhile until she could finally think again. "You're right. It's not his fault."

"You had the same opportunity as he did."

"Yeah."

Ben kept her close to him for a few moments longer before saying, "Ready to go home now?"

She only nodded, glad to still have someone there for her.

* * *

Three hours later, Kevin looked back in the tree. "Figure anything out yet?"

"Don't you wish!" they both cried.

"Now, please, please, let us down!" one yelled.

He smiled. "Done and done." He cut down the men. "Now leave because I called the cops a while ago. They should be here in about five… four… three… two… one…"

The sirens arrived.

Kevin told the officers his account of the story before following his car for towing and repairs.

* * *

The next day, he let the car roll up to Gwen's driveway. He honked the horn twice. Still no response. _Maybe she already got a ride,_ he thought. Then it was pushed away. She wouldn't do that. She was Gwen. Never late. Never forgot to call. Never forgot a mission (something he and Ben sometimes struggled with). And she would never leave him outside in his car waiting for more than ten minutes. It'd already been half an hour.

Finally, he shut off the purring engine. "Gwen, you'd better not be in there because if you're ignoring me, I will make this an issue," he growled to himself as he walked up the front steps. He rang the doorbell.

After the fifth time (he wasn't giving up and he'd rather not ram down the door), the door opened.

Before he knew what was happening, Gwen was hugging his torso tightly, threatening to never let go and possibly break his ribcage. She was crying into him. With relief and joy and every other emotion that she could pour out. Even the ones she knew he wouldn't understand.

He stroked her hair and kept one arm around her waist. Kevin wouldn't let go of her for the world. "I should've called. I'm sorry," he kept saying over and over again, but she sobbed harder, glad to hear him say those words.

When she regained that bit of thought she had left and wasn't crying her eyes out, she told him, "Don't let it happen again."

Kevin nodded and kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry," he repeated for probably the millionth time. "I swear I'll be more careful."

"I love you."

To that, he only smiled and pulled her closer. "Ditto."

With the mood lightened, Gwen got up the courage to ask one thing. "So what really happened? Who were those guys in your car?"

He sighed. "It is a very long story which I shall tell you-" He thought, checking his watch. They had a mission with Ben in less than five minutes. "Later. Right now, we need to fight some DNAliens. You up for it?"

She grinned. He was alive. He was there. He loved her. She would be ready to jump off a cliff at that point. "Yeah. And how is that car still in one piece?"

"An even longer story."

**A/N: Kevin's car was bound to be stolen one of these days! Especially after the whole J.T. and Cash thing from 'The Gauntlet'. It proves, it definitely could happen. Cuz it is definitely a kewl ride. I'd die for it…**

**And let's not forget about that adorable little Review button that's below!!! So click it, type something, and u shall be my new best frend!!! (btw, I have like a thousand best frends………) hahahaha. DON'T FORGET TO CLICK IT!!!!**

**'KAY BI NAO!!! THANXXXXXXEZZZZZ!!!**


	8. Annie

**A/N: They can't all be only children, rite? Ik Gwen has Ken and stuff and Ben has no siblings, but Kevin? Here's my take on things.**

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* * *

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"Get on in," Kevin said, opening the passenger side door.

"'Kay." Annie crawled up into the seat.

"We have to pick up Gwen and Ben before I drop you off, alright?"

"No."

He grinned. "Why not?"

"'Cause I said so."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like going to daycare. It's boring!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes."

"You are so much like me."

"We both got Mom's behavior. Stubborn and annoying and funny."

"You are _not_ funny."

"But I _am_ adorable."

Kevin didn't argue, but he smiled. So much like Annie to start off a perfectly good day with a good heated discussion over any stupid thing she could think of. He watched as she folded her arms across her chest and flipped her natural curls over one shoulder. _Funny,_ he thought. _Funny the way it is._

Minutes later, he was getting Gwen from her house.

"Gwen, backseat," Kevin said softly before Gwen opened the passenger side door.

"What?" Gwen asked, a bit shocked. Her green eyes widened. "Why? You know that I'm always passenger seat! It's like my spot! Who outranks me for my seat? It's _mine._"

The dark teen only chuckled. "And you say I argue." He opened his own door and slid into the driver's seat, a smirk still plastered on his face.

She didn't get the chance to look. She only sat where she was told. Then looked.

A girl about eight years old was sitting there. Her blonde hair fell around her freckled face in angelic curls. She smiled and stared out the front window. "Now can we go to school?" she asked quietly. Her voice was sweet and musical.

"Gotta pick up Ben first."

"But I'm already gunna be late," the girl whined. Not a happy camper.

"You're fine."

_This is a heck of a change_, Gwen thought. Her mind was reeling. _A little girl took my seat? How does that happen? I'm his girlfriend! Not officially, but he's just waiting for the right moment and- WHO AM I KIDDING?! I'm outranked by an eight year old?!_ Still confused beyond belief, she stayed silent.

"Gwen, this is Annie. Annie, this is Gwen," Kevin said. He wasn't sure how his team would react. Hopefully, it wouldn't be a total disaster.

"Hi!" Annie said cheerfully, looking over her shoulder at the redhead. Fake smiles and joy.

"Hi…" Gwen said, still pissed about her seat being taken.

At that moment, Ben slid into the backseat and Gwen moved over to make room for him. "Woah. Since when did you sit here?" he asked. His gaze flicked to the passenger seat.

"Hi!" Annie repeated and gave a tiny wave to the newcomer.

Ben stared back for a second. "Hi…"

Kevin was laughing in his head. The cousins had the same reaction. He only smiled. "Ben, Annie, Annie, Ben," he introduced quickly.

"Now school?" the girl asked.

"Yeah, yeah." Kevin waved his hand dismissively. "You'll get there when you get there."

"You are really annoying."

"It's in my blood."

"It's in mine too, you know."

"Yup, but that doesn't mean I have to accept it."

He revved the car's engine and sped away, shaking his head with a pleased grin.

There was an immediate awkward silence.

Ben was the first to speak up. "Alright, this is killing me! Who's the twerp?" he asked after what felt like an hour of him fidgeting. So weird to have Gwen sitting next to him. There was no space for him to stretch or sleep or put his feet up without Kevin noticing or hide a smoothie that was forbidden in the car after the whole spilling incident…

"She's not a twerp," the driver defended quickly as the car swerved into a parking lot. "Come on, Annie."

The little girl opened the car door, pushing hard to get it open enough so she could squeeze through.

Kevin helped sweetly without a complaint. It was his job.

Once the door slammed shut, Ben was instantly talking. "Who is she? Why are you back here? How am I supposed to sit with you back here? This is so uncool! Since when did you get kicked to the back for a little girl? I thought Kevin liked you more than that!"

"He does," Gwen replied softly. "She's just probably… Okay, I have no idea and this is eating me alive. When is he gonna get back?" Her green gaze flickered to the building the two were heading towards. He was carrying Annie the rest of the way to the door. "But she means a lot to him. A whole lot."

"More than you?"

She couldn't stop the sigh that escaped her lips. "I hope not."

Kevin was holding the girl and he dropped her off like he did every weekend. "Be good."

"Like that'll happen," Annie retorted. She hugged him tightly.

"That's what I thought," Kevin snickered. He knew her so well, but it wouldn't hurt to tell her those same two words every weekend.

She skipped off inside.

He turned, ready to put on his bad boy image again for the Tennysons. Having double personalities can be hard work. Especially when they're two complete opposites. Kevin slammed the car door shut behind him. He laughed lightly when he saw that Gwen had already taken up her usual spot once again. "You really don't like sitting in the back, do you?"

"Not one bit." There was an icy tone in her voice, one that convinced him that she was angry. "Not enough space."

"Definitely not enough space," Ben agreed. He stuck his head between the front seats.

There was a silence.

And once again, Ben was the one to break it. "So who was she?"

Kevin was quiet for awhile, trying to think of the thousand ways they'd react when they found out the truth.

"And how come she got my seat?" asked Gwen, her voice fierce and thoroughly angry.

"She's my sister for crying out loud. Didn't know that'd bother you guys so much," Kevin said as he put the car into drive.

The cousins went into a bit of shock.

"How come you never told us you had a sister?" Gwen asked.

"Never came up."

"And you didn't want to just tell us?"

"Didn't think it was important."

"Why did you have to drop her off?"

"I watch her for a few hours every weekend. I never really get to see her any other time. And since we have a mission, I had to drop her off and she was pretty pissed about it. She likes spending time with me. It means she doesn't have rules, doesn't have to listen, and she can just chill for a while."

"And what do you do when you watch her?"

"We drive around pointlessly or I get her a smoothie and we sit around. No work, no cleaning, nothing to worry about."

That sounded like something Kevin would do, Gwen realized. He would never be smart enough to actually do something nice and educational. Smoothies and driving. Of course.

Ben took his turn to speak up. "Why doesn't she look anything like you? Usually siblings look at least a little like each other."

"I look exactly like my dad. She just looks like _him_."

The redhead understood this word more than Ben did. _The step._ "So she's only your half-sister?" Gwen asked nicely. There was no way to word something like that nicely.

"Yeah."

She could hear the light tension and grief in his voice. It was very hard to understand the pain he felt. The gentle pain that he would hide so deeply. Knowing that he had no full family. A step, a half-sister, and a mom that hardly cared much anymore. It had to hurt him.

"So what's the tech deal we get to bust up today?" he asked, pulling the car onto an abandoned road that looked like it hadn't been used in years.

"Forever Knights," answered Ben, forgetting the whole thing. He leapt out as the car skidded to a stop in front of a castle.

Gwen looked to Kevin and said, "You're really different sometimes."

"It's hard to always be the bad boy," he breathed, ready for a fight. He absorbed the roof of the car, getting prepared.

"I like the better side of you," she murmured and leaned over to place a soft kiss on his cold, metal cheek. "Now let's go fight some of those knights." She opened the door and left to find Ben. Gwen hoped that he hadn't destroyed anything and wasn't dead yet.

He had to think for a second and only nodded. His lungs felt like they were going too explode. Finally, a fight and a little bit more of Gwen. Exactly what he needed. Kevin got out of the car.

* * *

**A/N: So that's Annie! just thought I'd introduce her. R&R! and btw, if you've read 'Life's Little Instruction Book', you'll remember the cookie thing. My sister just ate the last cookie……… I'm not happy about it.**


	9. Ben's Been To The Library AGAIN!

**A/N: 'Kay! Guess who's been to the very back of her library again! That's right, moi. So courtesy of Kathleen Keating, I give you my latest creation of greatness. Lol. Jk jk, but I'm trying. You all seemed to like 'Life's Little Instruction Book' so I'm hoping this will be just as good. Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!**

* * *

"Hey, Ben," Gwen said, barely looking back as her cousin clamored into the backseat. She brushed a few strands of hair from her face. "We'll head to Mr. Smoothie since we don't have any Plumber's stuff today. I think the aliens are dying down again."

"Big disappointment," Kevin snorted. "Just after I join and we have no more butt to kick. That's just great." His expression turned grim and solid again as he reverted back to his usual hard-core criminal face.

Ben sighed and threw his backpack down, hoping it wouldn't break anything that Kevin left lying around in his car. "Whatever. But I have good news!"

"You'll let me kick your butt instead?" the older teen offered from the driver's seat as he floored the pedal.

_Selfish much?_ Ben thought. "No, actually. I need your help Gwen. It's for Kevin."

"I don't want anything. I don't need anything. You're going to forget you said anything about this. End of story." His gaze flitted to the rearview mirror where Ben was rummaging through his backpack. Naturally, that was a bad sign. And he didn't look like he was stopping any time soon.

"So I was in the back of the library again-" Ben started and Kevin cut him off with a groan.

"We do not need anymore instructions on life, Tennyson!"

Ben only rolled his eyes and let out a snicker. "I know."

The redhead looked back. "And what were you doing in the library this time?" she asked suspiciously.

"Julie and I hang out there sometimes when we're supposed to be studying. It's better than Mr. Smoothie and she thinks I'm actually learning something by being there. So far, my head is still pretty empty."

Kevin only chucked and kept the car moving at a faster pace than the other passengers would've liked. He didn't care. The car would go fast as long as he was driving. When they got their licenses, he would nag them on how slow they were going. A win-win situation.

"So what'd you get this time?" A tone of curiosity rose in Gwen's voice as it began to sparkle in her eyes.

Ben finally found the object of his search. "We need to give Kevin some hug therapy."

The car suddenly jerked to a violent stop sending all the passengers flying against their seatbelts and the driver's gaze spun to the back of the car. "I don't need any therapy. Especially not _hug_ therapy. I'm fine." His expression turned furiously fierce and defensive. "I don't know why you two insist on worrying about me. I've lived my whole life alone and therapy won't change much."

"The fact that you lived alone is the reason you need it, Kev. You're like family now and it's our job to watch over you since no one else will," Gwen spoke up from her seat. She'd seen the light of Ben's intentions. But he hadn't thought of how Kevin would react to his new therapy sessions. "You're part of the team. We're going to worry about you no matter what."

His face softened as he retreated back to a normal sitting position. "I'm just not used to this," he breathed. "This whole 'family' concept."

"We'll explain it and start the hugging at Mr. Smoothie." Ben pointed forward. "Onward, Jeeves!"

Kevin raised a hand to slap Ben, but Gwen's angry glare got him to put it back down quickly. "Maybe this is why he thinks you need the therapy," Gwen suggested. Silently, the dark teen pressed his foot down on the pedal again and the car kept rolling again.

Gwen looked back. In Ben's lap was a tiny hot pink book. It had white letters across the top saying '_The Hug Therapy Book_'. It had two lighter pink polar bear looking animals in the bottom corner. Like the other book Ben had brought, it was old and beat up. The corners were battered. "Where do you find these?"

"The library. Where I find everything else that no one cares about." He grinned.

She shook her head and put a hand on Kevin's, hoping it was a bit of consolation for his upcoming torture.

Little did she know, it was.

They pulled into the parking lot a few minutes later. "I'll get smoothies." Ben jumped out of the car and stood outside for a moment. "Soda for you, Kevin?"

"I don't drink smooth fruit. It's weird. It's like drinking bacon."

Ben took his friend's tone as angry and with a weak shrug, took off towards the small shack-like building. The giant sign with the walking smoothie labeled it as his destination.

Gwen turned her eyes to gaze at Kevin with an estranged look. "Why would you know what drinking bacon is like?"

"It's a very bad personal experience that really, really sucked." His eyes met hers for a painfully short moment. "Let's just leave it at that."

They both climbed out of the car. "Of course," Gwen laughed, leaning against the hood of the green racing striped Camaro. "Only _you_ could drink bacon and find it as a bad thing."

Kevin shuddered. His mind bent back to find the distant memory he had pushed away. Never again could he drink anything blended that wasn't meant to be blended. Such as bacon.

Ben came back to find Gwen already flipping through '_The Hug Therapy Book_'. Her forehead was creased in thoughtfulness. Only Gwen could find something in a book about hugging to think about. He stood next to her and handed Kevin his drink. "So you think it'll work for him?" the teen asked his cousin, reading over her shoulder.

"It's Kevin. You never know." She shut it again and looked up. "Alright. Ready, Kev?"

"No. You guys can keep talking to me like I'm not here." He shook his head trying to get the ebony hair out of his obsidian eyes. "I don't care." He drummed his fingers on the car.

Gwen sighed deeply. She hadn't meant to hurt him. It just happened. He was sensitive sometimes. "You just have to be hugged. I'm not sure how hard that is for you. It's not like you'd have to fight a Highbreed single-handed. I'm sure you can survive a few hugs from me and Ben."

"I fought the entire Null Void single-handed!" Ben protested. He took the book from Gwen.

"Mhm." Kevin sipped on his soda. Definitely not a smoothie or bacon and he was grateful for it. "Let's just get this over with fast so I'm not emotionally scarred for the rest of my life over a few simple hugs."

Ben commented, "You're already emotionally scarred from almost everything else in the world."

"Point noted." Kevin took a deep breath. "So what does the book say?"

"Let's start with explaining what a hug is," Gwen said, opening the book in Ben's hands to the first page with actual words on it. "Okay, it says here that a hug is 'to clasp or hold closely, especially in one's arms; embrace or enfold, as in affection'. Or 'an affectionate embrace'."

Kevin made another mental note of that. Not like hugs are hard to describe. Put your arms around someone. Pretty basic stuff. "Someone hug me so I feel better." He stretched his arms out, expecting one of the Tennysons to come to him.

"It's not that easy." Ben took a drink of his smoothie. "We need to read you all the important stuff."

The dark teen put his arms down in disappointment. "Okay then. Keep reading." Impatience was already setting in.

"Gwen's gonna be doing all the hugging," Ben told him. His eyes flicked to his cousin temporarily and his eyes shone devilishly. "It'd be weird for me to hug you. And I don't think it's the right kind of therapy you need. That'd scar you worse than this whole session will."

Gwen's eyes widened and she delivered Ben a cruel glare that said 'I can't believe you're doing this to me especially when you know how awkward it is'. Ben just smiled again and took the book from her after he put his smoothie down.

A smirk crossed Kevin's features. Of course, that arrangement was fine by him. What could be better than having hug therapy with Gwen? Oh right. Getting _a lot_ of hug therapy with Gwen.

" Here's some more hugging stuff. 'Various experiments have shown that touch can:

Make us feel better about ourselves and our surroundings;

Have a positive effect on children's language development and IQ;

Cause measurable physiological changes in the toucher and the touched." He looked up at his friend again. "Now do you understand why you need hug therapy?"

"Um… yeah." Kevin didn't understand half the words said, but he got the basic point that hugging was proven to be good. "So hugs now?"

"Not yet," Ben said, turning the page again. "There's more."

Gwen felt a panic rising in her chest. She was going to be the one that was supposed to heal Kevin through hugs. What if she hugged him wrong? What if she didn't heal him? What if it didn't work? She was eyeing Kevin's whole body. The redhead found herself wondering what hugging him would be like…

"So here are some more reasons to hug:

HUGGING

Feels good

Dispels loneliness

Overcomes fears

Opens doors to feelings

Builds self-esteem (…)

Fosters altruism (…)

Slows down aging; huggers stay younger longer

Helps curb appetite; we eat less when we are nourished by hugs-and when our arms are busy wrapped around others

Eases tension

Fights insomnia

Keeps arm and shoulder muscles in condition

Provides stretching exercise if you are short

Provides stooping exercise if you are tall

Offers a wholesome alternative to promiscuity

Offers a healthy, safe alternative to alcohol and other drug abuse (_better hugs than drugs!_)

Affirms physical being

Is democratic; anyone is eligible for a hug

Is ecologically sound, does not upset the environment

Is energy efficient, saves heat

Is portable

Requires no special equipment

Demands no special setting; anyplace from a doorstep to an executive conference room, from a church parlor to a football field, is a fine place for a hug!

Makes happy days happier

Makes impossible days possible

Imparts feelings of belonging

Fills up empty places in our lives

Keeps on working to dispense benefits even after the hug's release."

It took awhile for both Kevin and Gwen to soak it all in. "That is a lot of hugging…" Kevin murmured. "Do you guys understand how long this whole hug therapy thing could go on for? There's no real reason to waste the time on me. What if there's an invasion that we miss or something stupid like that or-"

"We're doing this _because_ it's you, Kevin. Of all people, you're the one who needs most of these things." Gwen put a hand on his shoulder. "It's for the best."

Ben looked at the picture on the next page. "And besides, apparently, hugs prevent war." He laughed so hard he did a smoothie spit-take.

Kevin shrugged. "Wish we could've figured that out _before_ the Highbreed invasion. We could've just hugged them all."

"I doubt they'd let us hug them," Gwen pointed out, stifling a giggle. If hugs did stop war, how in the world did Vilgax nearly take over Earth?

Ben put his smoothie down and focused on reading further ahead. "Okay so there's only one rule to hug therapy and that is that you have to ask first to give or receive a hug." He grinned. How many times and one day would he force Kevin and Gwen to ask for hugs? As many times as he could.

"Great," Kevin growled. "I'm not liking this one freaking bit." He put his soda down on the hood of his car. "Almost worst than your last big idea. The whole let's go help Vilgax's planet because he said please wasn't any fun. And neither was the time that you decided to use the machine I created to help you and it backfired to turn me into a monster." His dark eyes hardened in a glare at Ben. Then they flicked back to his hand that was normal for the moment. _Only because of a stupid mask…_

Gwen opened her mouth to tell him for the millionth time that he wasn't a monster, but she fell silent, knowing he'd only argue more. "This one is better. It's just a book and some hugs."

"Yeah, that's what I'm worried about."

Ben grinned again. "As long as you ask, this should work." This was going to be funny more than anything. The therapy thing was just an added bonus. Kevin needed it and it was cheaper than paying for an actual therapist for him. "There's more."

The dark teen moaned. "More?"

"Yeah. There's types of hugs."

"_Types_ of hugs?" _Like this couldn't get anymore lame…_ Kevin thought.

"You obviously weren't loved enough as a child," Ben retorted. He realized his mistake a second too late.

"As if you didn't already know that when you met me on the streets of New York after I was abandoned." Kevin let his eyes fall and simply sipped his soda like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. The truth was that it was the most he'd ever said about his tortured past since he'd joined the team. Not like he'd admit to that.

"Well there are bear hugs, group hugs, sandwich hugs, side-to-side hugs, back-to-front hugs, and heart centered hugs. Of course there's more, but these seem to be the best from what I've read." Ben looked up at Kevin who seemed totally lost on the whole subject. "I can show Gwen and she can just hug you." At that, the older teen gave a slight nod. It was easier than saying he didn't understand much from the start.

Gwen moved to read over Ben's shoulder. "So…"

"Just hug him and hope it works." He pointed to a picture of two bears hugging. "That's how you need to hug him and-"

"This is ridiculous," she sighed. "Ben, there is no way-"

"Don't argue with me!" her cousin snapped and she fell silent. Ben took a breath and said, "This one might have the most effect on him."

"Please tell me this is all just a joke," Gwen whined.

Kevin was still standing there, lost in his thoughts, which were basically next to nothing. "I don't think it's a joke, Gwen," he commented. "If it was, his left eye would be twitching and that's another thing I can't stand about the twerp."

She groaned and took only a step closer to Kevin. "Can I have a hug?"

"Hug away."_ Let's just get this over with._

The redhead threw her arms around Kevin and just let herself melt into his chest. He was so warm and strong. His arms folded around her and she could barely remember to breath. He was so overpowering. Gwen's eyes closed as she drank in the moment that would have to last her a lifetime. This would probably never happen again for the rest of eternity. Her heart beat a little faster and she could feel the blood pumping through his veins even though Kevin was made of rock now. He was so close to her she wanted to look up and find his lips so she could press hers again them.

He made sure to hold her tight and wish that she would never let go. His eyes fell on her red colored halo of hair as it glowed in the sunlight. She would leave eventually. For college and for a better life and he'd be left in the dust behind both of them, watching and praying that they'd come back for him. She didn't deserve him, but somehow she kept coming back and kept agreeing to stick around for another week. It wouldn't last and he had to keep every memory locked in his mind so he could replay it like a movie, over and over again. "Gwen, don't let go," he murmured, his voice barely audible.

"I won't. I promise." Her voice was barely above a whisper, but he heard her loud and clear. Gwen's was the only voice he wanted to listen to. She sounded so sweet sometimes.

They pulled apart many minutes later to find Ben returning from another smoothie run. Neither had any idea he had ever left. "So feel any better, Kev?" the brunette asked with a sly smile.

"Much," he answered, putting one arm around Gwen and squeezing her gently.

"So the hug therapy is working?"

"Sort of," his cousin answered. She rested her head on Kevin's shoulder and knew that this was the beginning of a long line of hugs.

Eventually, Kevin would find a way to recover. Gwen would set down the path and he would follow her along, ready for anything. They could make it together. With more hugs.

"Need another?" Ben asked.

"Um… from you? No thanks." Kevin flicked his hand and leaned on his car again.

"Good. Hug therapy is over."

"What?"

"Yeah. I think one hug is enough. Your daily torture is over."

Kevin shook his head and his mouth turned upwards. "Benji, you are a little moron, you know that?"

"Julie says it enough when I get these books out of the library."

Gwen only laughed. Good to have everyone back to normal.

* * *

**A/N: Only Kevin would need hug therapy _and_ have a traumatizing incident due to drinking bacon. The bacon thing just came while I was writing. Spur-of-the-moment. Lol. And it's all direct quotes from the book so that's why it's written sort of weird in some places. And ik da ending kind of sucked, but it was hard to finish and stuff because I wasn't sure how it would work… R&R! Thanks!**


	10. Being AntiSmoothie

**A/N: Okay, so my sis and I were brainstorming (ahahahaha!!! That's always funny for me!! Brainstorming and Brainstorm and no one else gets that but me so moving on!) ideas for more Car Arguments and I now have a full notebook of brilliance (my sis is guud at that. It's only going to get funnier from here, I promise. So here's my favorite one out of them all. It's hilarious in my mind, but waaaayyyy hard to write!!!**

* * *

"_**Kevin Being Anti-Smoothie**__**"**_

"Hey," Kevin called absent-mindedly as he saw Ben and Gwen coming across the Mr. Smoothie parking lot to him and his car. His attention was captivated by his existing project.

Gwen eyed Kevin. He had that look on his face that said 'I dare you to interfere with me'. Definitely Kevin, but what the heck was he doing?

A smoothie was sitting in the middle of the parking lot. Totally innocent. Untouched and intact. Somehow, she had a feeling Kevin was going to do something stupid. When was that anything new?

"Kevin?" Ben asked. He eyed the white cup, taking a cautious step towards it. "Is that for me?" He wore a fake smile and a look of phony shock.

The dark teen snorted out a laugh. His eyes flicked to something in his hands as he pressed some buttons. "You wish, Tennyson."

"So what are you up to?" the redhead asked, trying to see what he was holding only to have him move a second later and nearly trip her in doing so. She staggered and put a hand on the car to keep her balance. Kevin was being stubborn again.

"Workin' on stuff." His reply was short and sweet, laced with a devilish underlying tone.

Ben jumped in. "What kind of stuff? Like creating a totally new smoothie for me? Aw, Kev, you shouldn't have!"

"Again, you wish."

"So seriously, what's going on?" Gwen nagged, getting annoyed with the raven-haired teen's secrecy.

"You'll see."

The two stared at the smoothie while Kevin kept working on whatever he was doing.

"Please tell me!" Ben begged, dropping to his knees and throwing his arms around Kevin's legs. "I want a smoothie!"

Distracted, Kevin just nodded. "Well then make it fast and be back in a second. You've _got_ to see this."

"Well then show me now!" the brunette whined.

"Can't. Not ready yet."

Ben threw up his hands, a sign of surrender before heading to the building. "I give up with you, Levin!"

"Ben!" Kevin called before the other teen disappeared.

The boy turned around. "Yeah?"

"Bring me, like, nineteen more smoothies and a soda. I'm thirsty!" Kevin yelled back. He turned back to his work, popping open the trunk to pull out some alien tech. Obviously illegal. He put them on the hood and closed the back of the car once again. "Gwen, go help him?"

She didn't want to, but was entirely curious on why Kevin, the anti-smoothie guy, would want with twenty smoothies. It made no sense to her. Still, she went after her cousin.

Kevin synced the devices to the machine and patiently waited for Ben and Gwen to come back. It would all be worth it in the end. Definitely worth it. But he did want the soda.

"Nineteen?!" the guy at the counter exclaimed, his jaw dropping and eyes popping out of his head. There was no way two teens would drink that many between them. Unless it was for a party or something.

"Yup," his best customer replied. There was an edge to his voice this time.

He scratched his head with a bit of shock and went to the back to make them all. It would take awhile.

Once they came back, Kevin popped the lids and dropped one device into each of them before he closed them back up again.. "Okay, now put them with that one out there." He pointed to the lone smoothie in the middle of the parking lot.

"Can you tell us what's going on?" Gwen asked, getting sick not knowing.

"I can show you," Kevin said, a smirk returning to his face that replaced the focused gaze. "Ben's just gotta get out of the danger zone or else he's going to look like a walking Gloop for the next week."

"Ke-"

"Gwe-"

"Kev-"

"Gw-"

"Kevin!"

"Gwendolyn!"

"Benjamin!" Ben laughed as he came back from putting the rest of the smoothies in the parking lot. "So now we're going to fuse them all together to create one incredible giant smoothie, right? That is so cool!" He was grinning like a moron of course, not realizing the already obvious.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Kevin yelled and dropped down to his knees, keeping his eyes barely above the hood of the car.

The pack of smoothies burst into a sort of slimy mushroom cloud, sending bits of fruit and other foods in every direction along with it's liquid-like counterpart. The entire parking lot was covered with the stuff. Disgustingly strawberry pink color and gross smoothie-ness everywhere.

Bursting out laughing, Kevin saw his friends' faces. They were covered in the stuff. Gwen had a chunk of something red on her cheek and a ton of the pink goo covering the rest of her face. Ben looked similar, but he had more fruit on his face and more goo in his hair, being shorter than Gwen.

His car was totally buried in it too. Very weird to see it pink instead of green and black, but he still couldn't help but laugh hysterically. How often do you get to blow up smoothies?

"KEVIN!" Gwen shrieked, seething with anger. Then she turned to see him with the slime layered on his hair, but his face and body was otherwise clean. And he was smiling. It was something she rarely saw when he was truly happy with himself. Her fury screeched to a halt. No reason to be mad. He was only messing around.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Ben yelled. He was grinning wildly, eyes lit with excitement. "DO IT AGAIN!"

The boys laughed it off after about an hour (Gwen sulked, but didn't show the rage she had felt earlier) before all three headed to the beach to wash the smoothie off. Ben was still splashing around like an idiot while Kevin was in the sand next to Gwen, lying back with a smile still on his face. "That was… _amazing_," he breathed, still in a bit of shock. "I didn't think it'd work."

"Between being Mr. Negativity and Mr. Anti-Smoothie, how do you find time to be Kevin?" Gwen asked, looking over at him, her green eyes flaming with the curiosity and intensity. He could be annoying and sweet at the same time.

"Dunno," he replied, staring at the twinkling stars. "I just be myself."

She put her hands behind her into the sand. "And you know what?"

"What?" he questioned, not really focused.

"I like that."

He smiled. "Gwen?"

"Yeah?"

"Any idea what happened to the soda I asked Ben for?"

"He probably blew it up with the rest of it."

Kevin sighed with disgust. Poor soda. It hadn't even done anything wrong. "Gwen?"

"Yeah?" Her heart fluttered a little faster when he said her name the second time.

"You still got some strawberry in your hair."

One thought crossed her mind. _Crap._

* * *

**A/N: that is definitely Kevin being himself. Pointlessly blowing up smoothies in a parking lot for the heck of things. R&R! Hope you liked it! **

**~Sky**

**P.S. It's not exactly in the car for the Car Arguments, but the car is there and that was what mattered. lol. thanks for reading!**


	11. Hysterical

**A/N: okay! This was the funniest thing I had seen all day and worst part is, Kevin and Ben _would_ find this absolutely hilarious!!! They would fall over laughing sooooo hard!!!! This is based on true events of my day. My nightmare of a freaking day that ended with the most laughing I had ever done in awhile!!**

**I love Language Arts/English/Reading teachers. They always find a way to be my absolute favorites. Worst part is, this is my real life and my real teacher saying real things. I figured Ben would crack up at this and decide to tell Kevin at some point. So in this book there's to two guys in the middle of World War II… SHIZZZ!!! THIS IS EVEN RELATED TO THE SHOW!!!! Weird… And they're best friends, one can get out of anything and one is totally cynical. Lol. Sound familiar in a way?**

**Okay, credit to the author is due. 'A Separate Peace' is written by John Knowles. It's hilarious at some points, but utterly boring at others but this one part… Jeez, I was dying in the middle of class I was laughing so hard and I read too fast compared 2 every1 else so they were staring at me for awhile until they red it and yah…. This is freaking creepy now that I think about it again…**

**And it's not an argument, but it's too awesome to leave out! And I got plenty of arguments for later!**

**Not a reference to Bevin in anyway. Because that just creeps me out. It's only something funny that Ben found and not to be taken in a different way than that.**

* * *

"Dude!" Ben laughed as he practically fell into the backseat with his backpack slung sloppily over his shoulder. It fell onto some alien tech on the floor, nearly crushing it. "You will never believe how much I laughed when I read this in class today!"

"You? Read?" Kevin countered with a disgusted snort as he pulled the car away from the other teen's school once the door was closed. "Shocker there."

"This is one of the funniest things I have seen in a very, very long time."

That got Kevin's attention. He looked back. "Show me."

"It's in a book so I can't show you because you can't read, Delinquent Boy." Ben rummaged in his backpack yet again. He eyed Kevin's truly hurt face before quietly adding, "Sorry. It was just a joke."

The driver shook it off although it still stung a little. He pulled the car around a corner, still a good distance from Gwen's school. They were heading to pick her up.

How many times had a book gotten them all into trouble? A lot. Especially when Ben was the one starting it. _Why do I even ask?_ Kevin thought, rolling his eyes. He'd already dug his own freaking grave for crying out loud.

"Found it!" a voice from the backseat called. "Okay, so we were reading and suddenly the whole class started laughing at, like, the exact same time. Obviously, I'm not that fast and I skimmed ahead and found this." Ben flipped a bunch of pages to around the middle of the book. "Chapter Seven! Yes!"

"Oh god, please tell me there's no instructions or therapy involved in this one!" Kevin moaned, wanting to pull over and kick Ben out of the car right then and there before he heard something he would regret. Or before he got another hug from the brunette… That would definitely be weird…

Ben smiled. "No hugs, no instructions and no therapy," he replied. "So just chill and listen."

"No thank you," Kevin breathed, pulling onto another hidden, alley-like street. "I think I've learned my lesson from the last few times we've played with books in my car. We should leave books in bags and keep the bags shut so no one can bring anymore books in my car and so I don't need anymore therapy." He flipped his raven colored hair out of his face, trying to focus on the road and completely drown out Ben's endless talking. As if the boy wouldn't shut up normally, put a book in his hands and he's a crazed talking maniac.

"All you have to do is sit there quietly and listen. Then it'll all be over. You'll drop me off at Mr. Smoothie with Jules and go hang out with Gwen or do whatever you guys do when I'm not there." His face contorted into a grimace when he realized his word choice. "Ew. Scratch that."

Kevin only wore a smirk on his face. "That's what you get for babbling, Tennyson." He pulled down another side street. "This is why when I tell you to shut up, you're supposed to shut up."

"Whatever." Ben skimmed the first page of the chapter before jumping to the next. "Okay, this is it."

The driver rolled his eyes and slowed the car down from fifty miles per hour down to thirty-five, ready to half-listen to Ben. He didn't have the patience to drive his car into a wall at that moment and fix it fast enough so he could still make it to pick up Gwen on time.

"Ready?" Ben asked.

Kevin snapped, "Didn't I just say that?"

"Actually, you didn't."

A growl ripped from the dark teen's throat and he tightened his grip on the steering wheel to refrain from turning around to shred his teammate's punky little face off.

"So here it is: 'Brinker looked the standard preparatory school article in his gray gabardine suit with square, hand-sewn-looking jacket pockets, a conservative necktie, and dark brown cordovan shoes'."

So far, Kevin was definitely not impressed. His nostrils flared at the point of his time being wasted.

" 'His face was all straight lines-eyebrows, mouth, nose, everything-and he carried his six feet of height straight as well. He looked but happened not to be athletic, being too busy with politics, arrangements, and offices.'"

Definitely not impressed.

" 'There was nothing idiosyncratic'-"

Kevin cut Ben off. "What does that mean?" he asked. Big words could amaze Kevin. He decided to learn some stuff to show Gwen a thing or two eventually. That day had yet to come.

"Peculiar," Ben replied.

"And what does that mean?"

The brunette had forgotten that Kevin wasn't quite as smart as other people. "Weird or strange."

"Ah." Kevin made a mental note to remember those things. "Carry on."

" 'There was nothing idiosyncratic about Brinker unless you saw him from behind;'"

The driver paused him again. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Keep listening. This book is written from another guy's point of view because it's an all guys' school." Ben cleared his throat a bit and carried on. " '…I did as he turned to close the door after him.'"

"I'm lost."

Ben hushed Kevin again before reading on again. " 'The flaps of his gabardine jacket parted slightly over his healthy rump, and-"

"HE WAS _LOOKING _AT ANOTHER GUY'S BUTT?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS BOOK?!"

The car had slammed to a sudden screeching stop as Kevin floored the brakes.

Ben was already cracking up. He had to take a few seconds to breathe and calm down. "I know, but be quiet! '-and it is that, without any sense of derision at all, that I recall as Brinker's salient characteristic, those healthy, determined, not over-exaggerated but definite and substantial buttocks.'"

"I swear you have the weirdest school, Tennyson!" Kevin laughed hysterically. He had finally gotten the point. Or at least sort of.

"Did you understand it?" Ben asked, trying to stifle his own laughter.

Neither could talk for a few minutes while they were trying to breath, laugh, and figure out what it meant at the same time. Not enough space for words in all of that.

Finally, Kevin regained his voice and wiped a tear from his eye. "Jeez, what is that guy's problem?!"

"Well my teacher was talking and she said it's not 'ooh, baby your butt is so hot' it's more like he just has a fat butt."

Kevin burst out again, slamming his head against the steering wheel on accident. A few tears hit his eyes, but he brushed them away before Ben could see.

The rider went on. "And then my teacher went on to make the Mc Hammer joke with that one song… Um… Oh yeah! That 'I Like Big Butts' song."

The driver let out another howl of laughter.

"My teacher said that another kid told the other class that he was staring at a woman with this massive butt, and he went on to describe in perfect detail how it jiggled and wiggled and flattened like a giant marshmallow when she sat down."

Kevin was practically dying with the hilarity. He was crying it was so funny.

"And then this kid in my class said, 'So once I saw this lady in a restaurant who turned and her butt squished this guy against a wall.' The whole class started cracking up-" At that point Kevin was too. "-because we'd all said we don't stare at people with big butts. So he said he wasn't staring at her, he was staring at the guy. Everyone laughed harder. Then Raj goes, 'Tommy, you are _definitely_ not coming to my sleepover anymore.'"

Suddenly, it got to be too much. "Please stop, Benji! This is killing me!" Kevin was bent over at his stomach, beginning to struggle with getting air into his lungs. He had his forehead pressed deeply into the steering wheel's hard leather, giving him a massive headache. With his face twisted into a huge grin the whole time, it started to hurt.

"'Kay." Ben chuckled. He leaned back in his seat and folded his arms across his chest. "I told you it was funny."

Someone knocked on the window.

Kevin rolled it down to see Gwen's green glare. She was definitely pissed. Pissed beyond normal Gwen pissed. "Where were you guys? You were supposed to pick me up ten minutes ago!"

That started another round of their instant snickering.

**A/N: Sadly, this actually happened in my class. Quotes aren't exact from my fellow classmates so I'd like to thank Tom and Raj (even though I really, really don't like them). And Robert who was just the instigator of it all. And my ALA teacher for being hilarious. The whole class is like a perfect family with the idiots and the loons and the geniuses. Thank you to my entire ALA class for giving me the inspiration for this! R&R cuz u kno u loved it! Thank you!**

**~Sky**


	12. Two Deadly Words

**A/N: I AM BACK! After a week of vaca, my brain hasn't yet exploded with the thousands of ideas bouncing around in there. I wrote the things that I wanted to write in my notepad on my fone. So here's one that I've had for awhile. And I noticed there's not much Julie in my stories so hope u like her in this one. She's hard to write because she's hardly in any episodes and too preppy/girly for my liking. Gwen's naturally easier, being a tomboy and all. So srry out there to all the Julie lovers! U won't see much of her here!**

**Remember, I have no knowledge of tennis. Don't flame if I say stuff wrong, tennis ppl!**

**Credit due to my sister for helping me sorta perfect this one. Notice the _SORTA _right there. She just thought it was hilarious so I'm writing it out now.**

* * *

She looked up as the fluffy bunny-shaped clouds floated across the crystal blue sky, nothing to do but float and rain on people's parades in other towns. It was a perfect day to end a perfect match. Another win. Nothing new to that. That was her life in a nutshell. And the occasional alien, courtesy of her newly found friends.

It kind of depended on the day.

Her short jet-black hair fell into her eyes and she gently brushed it out of the way once again. If her hair was long like Gwen's, it would be about twenty times harder to play tennis. Maybe thirty...

The schedule for the rest of her day was practically non-existent. Nothing to do but relax and wait and chill for a while. A rare thing.

Julie pulled on her pastel pink jacket before grabbing her tennis bag off the bench beside her. Her muddy brown eyes flickered up as she saw that none of her usual crowd was around. All the team had left earlier while she waited for her boyfriend to pick her up with the rest of his team. Ben was almost always there, waiting for her with Kevin and Gwen still sitting in the car.

And yet the car was there. She could see the green hood out of her peripheral vision with the black racing stripes straight down the center.

So where _was_ Ben?

Not like the weather was bad. No rain or anything. Then there would be a logical reason for him to wait in the car. On a good day with the sun shining? No excuses. He should've been there to see the entire match and cheer her on from the sidelines. Not once did she hear his voice. She'd assumed he wasn't there.

But the car…

Kevin obviously wouldn't just come out of nowhere to pick her up. He's Kevin. The guy's got better things to do than tow around the girlfriend of probably his second or third worst nightmare. In the history of probably his millions of nightmares. She'd heard enough about his past to get it. Sort of.

The car… Why was it there?

And where the heck was Ben?!

Last time Julie checked, Gwen couldn't drive. Or get anywhere near the driver's seat of the car to even borrow it. Like the owner would _ever_ let that happen. He was dumb, but not _that _dumb. And she would never have the guts to steal his car anyways.

Something wasn't quite right.

A dog was barking at the fields across from the courts. Probably that kid that always let it run loose whenever he decided to. Some joggers were lingering around, iPods out and everything. Not much activity. At least one of Ben's hands wasn't walking around anymore… Julie shivered at the thought. Her life was much weirder now since the Tennyson cousins and Levin had come into it.

Without even getting closer than ten feet, she could tell something was going on inside the vehicle that was parked innocently across the street from where she stood, tennis bag over her shoulder. Something that wasn't quite normal for the team.

Well, other than the fact of aliens and planetary wars. So on, so forth.

Pulling open the car door, she slid carefully into the back seat behind her boyfriend who was focused on something in his hands and scattered on the console of Kevin's car. She deliberately bumped into him to make sure he knew she was there. "What's up?" Julie asked curiously, peering over his green-jacketed shoulder to see what was so important that he'd ignore her.

"More like what's down? Or sideways or around or whatever. Turn your head and it's all upside down anymore. Pretty confusing," Ben remarked quickly without thinking, barely phased when Julie waved her hand in front of his face. His green gaze was intensely focused on his hand. He had barely acknowledged her existence as she had gotten in.

"Ben-" the Asian American started, her voice sounding baffled, but was silenced when the redhead in the passenger seat shushed her.

Julie sat there, stone still. Her brown eyes finally flicked over to Kevin who was also staring intently at the items on the console and in his hand. His dark gaze was determined more than anything else. Something was so close, but just out of his grasp.

"Guys-"

For the second time, Gwen hushed her.

Ben opened his mouth for a moment before closing it again.

The tension in the small, enclosed space was thick enough to cut with a knife. (Although if there was a choice of a knife or a laser lance, they all knew which would be chosen.) Stress was getting to them all at that point. Even the Asian American who didn't understand any of it. Julie wasn't sure she could handle the confusion much longer. She stared at the trio before her, wanting answers desperately.

It stretched on. Minutes passed before the silence was broken by one of the boys. The brunette in the backseat was finally ready. He stared at Kevin, a quiet force in his eyes.

Again, Ben opened his mouth and spoke six simple words, slowly and deliberately, that explained it all to the girl beside him.

"Kevin, do you have any fives?"

The dark teen in the driver's seat gave his friend a smug grin of victory before replying coldly with the two deadly words Ben hadn't wanted to hear.

"Go. Fish."

* * *

**A/N: no specific reason why they were playing Go Fish, but I thought it'd be hysterical!!!!! And it really was for me. I was laughing while writing it. My mom looks over at me and asks me why I'm smiling. It's too complicated to answer her… I read it to my sister and she was laughing so hard she nearly fell out of her chair. Obviously a good sign for readers. Thankzzzz!!! R&R! Hope you liked it! Bi!**

**~Sky**

**2nd A/N: Before the editing this, I played the basketball game of my life only 2 lose by one measly basket. My dad screwed my team. We lost five seconds when he was running the clock… pizzed and hoping for another game against those loserz next week… srry. Needed 2 vent my anger somewhere and this was the only place I could think of in twenty seconds! Definite bi now. R&R!**

**~Yet Again, Sky**


	13. Back To The Garage

**A/N: You asked for 'em. I've got 'em. More Car Arguments! No Bevin here cuz that's OOC for both guys in my opinion. No offense to those who like it, but it's just not my style. But this is another Ben and Kevin one-shot. The guys are hilarious together withot Gwen. I can't help it.**

* * *

"Let's make this fun!" Ben suggested, pausing for a second to take his jacket off. He let his friend take a break and threw the jacket in the backseat before returning to the rear of the exterior. "I mean, we can pretend-"

"That yet another Highbreed _didn't_ just annihilate another tire on my car?" Kevin hissed through gritted teeth. He'd been trying to get the car back to the garage for half the night. It was already around nine or so.

Ben sighed. "Come on. It could be worse."

"Well, they took out the original tire. Then once I had put on the spare, they decided to come back and pop that one too. And the whole windshield is blown out with glass across the front seats. Do you understand how long it's going to be until I can get this thing running again?! I have to get a new engine because you fell on the hood, Humungousaur!" He was seething with anger and pounded his fist on the metal. Partially because of Ben. The other parts were due to Gwen being out of town on a short vacation. Plus, another set of rogue Highbreeds chose that time to come out again, giving the teens a lesson they wouldn't forget very easily. As an added bonus, his ID mask was broken. Again.

The other threw his hands up. "Alright, it couldn't be worse."

"Oh! And the Omnitrix died on us. I. Got. Pounded." Kevin was sore and he was the one stuck pushing the car the whole way home. "Now, we've got to get the car back to the garage so I can patch it up and then get some sleep."

"It's past my curfew. I'm dead meat. Don't think you're the only one screwed."

Kevin refrained from barking out at him again. He pushed the car further along the road. Ben had given up helping when the dark boy could do it himself most of the time.

"But seriously, let's pretend we're a couple of normal guys who actually hit a pot-hole and the tire-"

"And I'll try not to beat your guts out."

Ben shut his mouth.

The other groaned as he got the car past another mile marker. "This sucks," he said.

"I noticed. Why again aren't we calling a tow truck?" Ben asked. He walked beside Kevin, not offering to help in any way."We'll get back in no time flat."

This thought had come up a few times already and Kevin had an answer prepared. "What do you want to tell the tow truck guy? 'Our car fell in a ditch and we got out unscathed.' Or 'A meteor hit it.' Really, Benji? You want to tell them that a Highbreed took out the tire and you fell on the front in Humungousaur form? They won't drive away, convinced we're a couple of freaks?"

The brunette looked at his shoes and kept following. It was going to be a long night. "I didn't-"

"Just shut up." Hostile words kept him from trying to kill the younger boy. He was exhausted, annoyed, and already had a busy day for tomorrow fixing the car. This current alien attack wasn't helping it one bit.

"We're not a couple of freaks."

Rolling his eyes, Kevin kept moving forward at an increasingly slowing pace. His arms were beginning to feel like they'd fall off any second. "Yes, we are."

Ben was taking this moment. "I got a stroke of bad luck and found the Omnitrix. You…"

"Yeah, I can't help my issues." Kevin was snarling again. His tone was disgusted.

"You did start it."

"Walk home yourself, Tennyson." That was the last straw. "I can get back to the garage on my own. You can run ahead faster and get home. Maybe if you're lucky, your folks will go easy on the punishment."

Ben sighed. "I helped destroy the car. I'll help you get back."

With a grunt, Kevin said, "You do know this is going to suck."

"The Omnitrix recharges fast. I'll be able to help with EchoEcho pretty soon." Ben watched as Kevin kept pushing the car forward as other vehicles sped down the road past them. Headlights flashed across their faces, but no one decided to stop and help a couple of kids.

His gaze flicked over to his friend. "Leave. I'm, like, two miles from my house. I'll get my stuff from the garage tomorrow and work on it."

"I can still come with you."

"You really, really don't want to do that," Kevin warned.

"Why not?" Ben asked, suddenly curious. "Something wrong?"

The dark teen's eyes clouded over. "A lot of somethings. You don't want to be involved. I might have to push it all the way back to the garage if the step is home anyways. My life is too complicated for you to really get it."

"You can tell me," Ben offered.

"You don't want to know."

They kept walking in silence for a few more minutes.

"Why don't we call Gwen?" the brunette asked.

Kevin moaned. "Gwen's out of town. Remember? She told us a week ago and then everyday after that before she left. Then again the day she left. Didn't you notice she's been gone for a few days?"

The younger thought for a bit. He blinked a few times. "She's been gone?"

The raven headed teen wanted to bash his head into the car. "Yes, she has, you idiot."

"Oh. And _you_ noticed?"

"Of course I noticed!" Kevin regretted the words.

"Because you love Gwen?"

The next syllable was inaudible.

"What'd you say, Kev?" Ben laughed.

He was silent again.

"Come on. Say it."

"Yeah, I love your cousin. Good enough for you?"

Ben folded his arms across his chest. "That's better. Now if only I had a tape recorder for that…" His grin turned upwards a little more. "She'd love to hear you say that."

"Yeah, so would a ton of other people."

The brunette rolled his eyes and hopped on the trunk of the car. "You know, we could sit here all night and kill time until Gwen to come back from vacation. We only have to wait for morning."

"I can't stand much more than an hour with you. How do you expect me to survive all night without ripping out your vocal chords?" He'd stopped the efforts because Ben was on the trunk.

"I was hoping you had self-control."

Kevin shrugged. "I do." He let a thought come across him. "But it's been used tonight when you fell on my car."

More silence hung in the air.

"I could call Julie. She could send Ship to pick us up."

That was a good idea. Too bad it came three hours later when they only had a mile left to go to the garage. They'd skipped Kevin's house because a certain car was in the driveway and headed for the suburbs of Bellwood.

The older boy's patience cracked. "You think of calling Gwen, who has been gone for days without you noticing, but ignore the fact that your girlfriend has a galvanic mechomorph who could've flown us home the entire time?!"

"She'd get in trouble. It's late." Ben wasn't threatened by Kevin's behavior. Just surprised by it. "Why didn't you think of it, tough guy? And besides her phone is usually off by now."

"Then why'd you suggest it?!"

"I don't know."

They both sat on the trunk of the car for a moment. Kevin's breathing was heavy from the exertion of pushing the car all night. His arms were sore and badly strained. If there was a fight in the coming days, he would be in no condition. Ben was fine other than tired of walking. He'd been busy most of the fight until the Omnitrix went into recharge mode. Then he'd cursed a bit and ran, leaving the battle into his friend's hands. They'd won after lengthened struggling from the Highbreeds.

Kevin leaned back and stared up into the clouds. "It looks like it's gonna rain," he commented.

Then the water poured down in drops the size of golf balls.

The two got back to pushing the car to the garage, not wanting to sit in the cold.

Ben started to talk a bit. "Kevin?"

"Yeah?" the darker one asked.

"Why'd you have to say that?"

They both groaned and the tires rolled a bit easier on the slick black pavement.

"Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"It got worse."

The younger nodded in agreement as his soaked hair fell into his vision, blocking out everything else. "I noticed."

They managed to get to the garage around two in the morning to see a familiar figure standing there waiting for them.

"Guys, I called you both on your badges and Ben's phone seven times. Each! Why didn't you pick up?!"

Kevin's eyes shot daggers to Ben. "Why didn't you pick up you're phone, Benji?" he growled fiercely.

"I didn't know it rang," he whimpered, shaking the water from his hair. "It was on silent."

"And why was it on silent?" snarled the dark teen.

"Because it pisses you off when my ringtone goes off every five minutes. You know, the one with the frogs and stuff."

Kevin thumped the back of Ben's head before stalking off deeper into the garage.

Gwen looked to her cousin, a touch of sympathy in her eyes. "That could've gone over much worse."

Rubbing the spot where a dull pain had broken out, Ben whimpered with his voice's pitch rising a bit. "I was expecting to lose my head."

**A/N: lol! I loved this! Ben and Kevin stuck pushing the car bak… funneh! Hope you liked it. Comments and reviews make me happy! So do good Ben and Kevin moments... Gwen always seems to show up in the end...**

**~Sky**


	14. Christmas On The Car

**A/N: I can't stand the number thirteen. I have thirteen chapters and I've been panicked about it since I noticed. So here's another Car Argument to fix that. Sorry, but it's one of those issues i seem to keep finding. i don't like having thirteen reviews either, so if anyone notices that, please fix it for me!**

Kevin had only left for ten minutes to grab a bite for breakfast. Turns out, a drive-thru won't turn down anyone on foot. Especially one willing to wait in a line for that long and risk their life by being hit by a car. He was determined. It was one of his better traits.

He'd gotten back to the garage and had a weird sense that something was wrong. Either that or paranoia.

Gwen was there. So was Ben. And his car.

And it was covered in lights. Red, green, blue and every color in the rainbow. Garland was hung around the mirrors. Sparkles and fake snow were across the hood and trunk and inside on the dashboard. Silver streamers on the front, blocking the licencse plates.

"Surprise!" Ben yelled, doing a stupid little dance. He seemed over excited with himself. "We decorated your car for Christmas!"

The redhead could see the disgust on Kevin's face. "Ben, I think you should shut up."

"Why?"

Kevin was just staring at it. "Why must you guys destroy my car?" he whined.

"We didn't destroy it," Ben said, putting on a pouty face. "We tricked it out!"

"With lights?" His face had dropped and was staring wide-eyed at his prized possession.

"And this sparkly stuff that I found!" He picked up silver streamers and threw them on the hood. "See? It's awesome."

"Maybe we should leave…" Gwen suggested quietly, but Ben wasn't done yet.

He looked at his work. "Now, we can drive it around."

Kevin was dumb-founded. "You guys totally trashed it…"

"Come on! We gotta drive and spread the cheeriness!"

"That's not a word," his cousin pointed out. She hadn't thought this would happen. She'd thought he'd react… not this way. "We should probably go…"

"Benji, lemme ask you something," the dark teen started. He blinked a few times and breathed deeply, trying not to strangle the younger boy. "Would any sensible person really drive around in a car where the windshield is covered by tinsel, streamers and colored lights?"

The boy stood there for a second. "Well-"

"That's right. No one would. You couldn't see out to drive anywhere and we'd probably kill some innocent bystander. Do you really want to do that to some little old lady out there who doesn't even know her fate could be caused by an idiot in a green jacket?"

Ben sighed. "Fine," he muttered. "I'll clean off the windshield."

Kevin couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "You do know that my reputation would be at risk. Me driving around in a car decorated like a freaking tree would be killer for my image."

"It's Christmas Eve, Kev. You're supposed to have fun!" Ben protested.

This received a shaking head. "No, I'm not going anywhere. I'll clean this up," he said rolling his eyes. "It'll take me all day, but I'll finish eventually."

The girl was getting sick of it. "We decorated. Big deal," she said fiercely.

"Yes, big deal. I work all year on this car. Do you understand how much damage these lights could cause? They could scrape the paint or-"

"Whatever, Kevin. Let's go, Ben." She took her cousin's hand and pulled him out of the garage in the blink of an eye. "We worked hard on that!" Gwen yelled over her shoulder. Then they disappeared.

The one remaining stared at their efforts, still disgusted. He soaked in the damages to his ride before setting to work at repairing them. Then an idea came and he froze. That would work.

Later that night, the doorbell at Gwen's house rang and she was on her last nerve. The door flew open her face winced against the cold air and she screamed, "I SWEAR, IF YOU'RE ANOTHER CAROLER WANTING FIGGY PUDDING, YOU CAN GO TO A STORE! WE DON'T HAVE ANY!"

He blinked a few times. "Didn't know you felt that way, Gwen." Kevin was standing there in his dark shirt and hat. His expression was windswept and paler.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, softly, letting her anger subside. "I thought you were mad."

"Ben's waiting. You wanna come?" Kevin threw a thumb over his shoulder and pointed to the car, lit up like a mobile tree on the curb at the bottom of her driveway. "I cleared off the windshield so all little old ladies in Bellwood are safe from my erratic driving with the lights and crud."

"You didn't take it off?" Her surprise came off in waves.

"What can I say?" he laughed with a shrug, "It grew on me. Plus, Ben said it spreads cheer."

Gwen smiled. "And that is definitely something you need." She leaned on the doorframe.

"So you in?"

She thought it over for a second and brushed the fake snow from her cheek. "I'll be out in a second."

**A/N: fixed my thirteen problem. Lol. Hope you enjoyed this short one.**

**~Sky**


	15. Pain With A Shoe

**A/N: I loved writing this. Lol. So here's another one. This is normal Kevin again, jsyk or else there'd b issues.**

**Also, I have no clue any soccer terms (I have zero eye-foot coordination so I stick with basketball. Too bad none of AF play that…if they did, that'd be awsum, but they don't and i'm all like grrrr)**

**Disclaimer: don't own Ben 10. see? I remembered this time! I'm proud of myself.**

Ben jumped up the curb to go find Julie. He'd had a soccer game and had to miss her match once again. She understood though and that was the best part. She knew he had aliens to fight and couldn't always make it, but he was there when he could be.

The Asian American smiled and waved as she saw the boy rounding a corner. Her face lit up. "You here to pick me up?"

"No," he confessed. "That's what I bring Kevin for since I can't drive yet." Ben shrugged slowly. "I'm working on the whole license thing still."

Julie rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag. The girl rose to her feet. "So they're waiting for you to come back?"

"I'm guessing he'll drive off if I take too long, but he and Gwen were fighting when I got out."

"And you don't want to be away from them for too long?" the Asian American asked, her brown eyes trained on his face. She pulled on her jacket. "Because we both know Gwen would slaughter him in a fight, hands down. He's got a shield, but it's not much defense against her mana and stuff."

Ben shrugged. "That doesn't mean he won't fight her back. The dude doesn't give up no matter how out-matched he is. I should know, of course." He got his natural cocky grin back.

"Yeah, yeah," Julie laughed. "Let's just get back to them to see who's winning."

As the two approached the car, they placed bets, only to find the dark teen's face pressed against the window and the redhead behind him with a black shoe in her hand, beating the other over the head with it. Kevin had a distorted bruise appearing across his cheek and his skin was smashed against the tinted glass. He was trying to speak, but it looked like Gwen was yelling a lot and obviously winning.

Julie stood on the curb and stared at the scene. "I won," she told her boyfriend with a sly smile. "Gwen's killing him."

"Weird thing," Ben pointed out, "is that she's hitting him with his own shoe. I'm not sure how that works, but he probably had it coming." He ruffled his hair a little before reaching into his back pocket. Then handed over a few bills to Julie.

"Thank you very much," she giggled. She took the cash and put it in her bag. "Haven't you heard? Girls rule, boys drool. That's the way the world works."

"Your world maybe," Ben muttered. He folded his arms across his chest.

"Or even, 'Girls go to college to get more knowledge. Boys go to Jupiter to get more stupider'." Julie smirked.

"Only dumb blondes would say that. You can't survive on Jupiter without an airtight helmet and suit. So we really can't go to Jupiter and get stupider unless our brains exploded and our skulls shattered which would definitely happen because there's no air in space or in Jupiter's atmosphere."

"And for the record, 'stupider' isn't a word." Julie looked back to the car again and watched the driver cower some more, using his arms to shield his face. Too bad it wasn't working as well as he'd probably hoped it would. The shoe kept smacking him. Gwen was good with a weapon. "So are we going to do anything to help him?" asked the girl.

"Nah," Ben said, flicking a hand towards them. "He'll fight his way out of it eventually."

She smiled. "Eventually." Julie turned on her heels and headed down the sidewalk towards her home. "So you'll come back to check on them later?"

"I can always walk you home first," he stated, hustling to fall in step beside her. "Kevin can fend for himself."

"Not if Gwen kills him before then."

An hour later, Ben came back to the car to find the two sucking face. "Ew," he muttered, turning to leave as soon as he had appeared.

The redhead pulled away from the kiss for a second to trace the black and blue mark that was on his swollen cheek. It was only getting darker and turning a sickly yellow. "Sorry about that," she murmured softly. Her fingers tangled themselves in the boy's ebony hair. "I was-"

"How did you get my shoe?" he asked, still in shock about that. His earthy toned eyes met her emerald colored orbs. "I mean, it was on my foot. That's not even possible!"

Gwen shrugged and leaned into Kevin again, lacing her arms around his torso. One last time, she told him, "Sorry."

"I know you are," he breathed, pressing his lips to her forehead again. He lingered there and pulled her closer once more to feel her warm skin against his chest. "Just don't do it again."

**A/N: I loved this idea. That is so them, in and out of love. It was funny when I thought of it, but putting it into words was a bit harder. Thoughts?**

**~Sky**

**P.S. How did Gwen get Kevin's shoe? The world may never know. But it does take 1,400 licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop. I tried it…**


	16. Sprinkler

**A/N: needed another one. This one came and I HAD to write it ASAP! So here is my newest Car Argument. Welcome the Gwevin-ness we haven't seen since 'Breathe'**

**Disclaimer: don't own Alien Force. I'd love to though… The Monopoly fic is mine. Read it and love it if you haven't already!**

* * *

Kevin rolled into the driveway and felt the car lurch underneath him in a sickening way. He knew what had happened. "Crap," he mumbled and put the gears into park. "Gwen," he called out the window.

The girl was standing in the lawn, a hose in hand. "What?" she said, looking back at him. "What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Got bored at home. Annie wanted to play another game of Monopoly and I keep beating her the same way I beat you and it gets a little old after three games a day."

"You're sister-"

"I love her to pieces, but she is as stubborn as-"

"You?" Gwen offered.

Kevin's grin widened. "So whatcha up to?" he asked, ignoring what she'd said.

"Watering plants." Her reply was so simple and easy. The redhead's green gaze flicked back to her ebony haired friend who was leaning nonchalantly against his car. "How about you?"

"Wondering what I ran over on your driveway that popped my tire." Kevin turned his attention downward to check the damage. "I mean, I thought you'd have the decency to properly clear your driveway for me. You knew I was coming."

Gwen rolled her eyes. "No, I didn't," she said matter-of-factly. "You came over because you got bored at home and you didn't even call me or anything. So don't blame me."

"You still popped my tire." He ran a finger along the rubber. "Gwen?"

"Yeah?" she asked.

His face twisted into a frown. "Your stupid sprinkler popped my tire," he whined.

"Then you should've watched where you were going." She had caught onto his smug tongue and suddenly found it shocking that she was using it herself. "Sorry," she said, wincing at the word.

"I think I broke your sprinkler…"

"What?!" Gwen rushed over dropping the hose in the process. "Oh come on, Kevin," she said. "I already broke a bunch of these today! That was my last one!"

"…Gwen, how many sprinklers do you have?" the dark teen asked.

She paused and thought it all over. "Every time I water anything, I usually break one or two or all of them so I buy a ton."

Kevin couldn't help but let out a real laugh. It was maybe the second time Gwen had ever heard him laugh with the serious hilarity of it, not just because it was stupid. "You have a tendency to break sprinklers?" he said, trying to stop laughing.

"So?" she fought back. "You have a tendency to do illegal things."

"But sprinklers?"

"Yes, sprinklers!" She was getting frustrated with him.

The dark teen sighed and took a few breaths, calming his hysterics. "Okay," he said, a smile still possessing his features. "Okay." Kevin leaned over his car for a while and made sure he was still in one piece. "So can you find me a spare tire or something?"

Gwen sighed. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." She shuffled into the garage.

Kevin found himself studying her lithe, beautiful figure as she disappeared into the darkness of her garage. The girl's red and auburn tinted hair swished around her waist. Her body was just so perfect. He watched her features light up when she noticed him watching her. She gently brushed stray strands from her gorgeous face and her emerald eyes flitted to Kevin.

She found herself watching him, the way his muscles tightened when he was relaxing. When he was tense, he was alert. But now, he was leaning against his car, his dark hair catching the sun and turning an almost deepened brown color. His face softened and a sweet grin was let loose to stop Gwen's life and put it all on pause. Kevin's earthy eyes were paying attention to her and nothing else, like she was his whole world.

Little did Gwen know, she was. Kevin sighed. He wanted to be able to run his fingers through her hair and hold her against his chest and forget to let go. As long as she was close, he could ignore any problems. He would watch her and love her.

The redhead came back, her step a bit lighter than when she left. "No luck on the spare tire," she told her friend with a shrug. "Sorry."

He let out a nearly inaudible groan of anger.

She put a hand on his bicep. "I'm sorry, Kev. I didn't mean to leave the sprinkler out. I should've known you'd be over here at some point."

"Well, duh. When I'm not at home or in the garage, I'm here or with Ben." He took her hand in his. "It's not your fault though."

Gwen suddenly felt a rush of motion behind her waist and Kevin's arm had snaked around her. Her eyes widened a little when she realized he was leaning in and his lips were inches away from hers. She closed the gap as soon as it had become just that…

Water slammed into Kevin's side at full blast and he was stunned and let go of Gwen, realizing he had been holding her over his car. He looked into the jet stream and saw Frank Tennyson standing there with a hose in hand. A fake smile was plastered on his face.

Putting his hands up, Kevin backed away slowly. "Alright, alright," he said with a quiet laugh. The boy couldn't help but smile as he noticed his soaked shirt. "I surrender. You can have the beautiful Gwendolyn back."

The blood flushed the girl's face, turning her a bright pinkish red that her friend adored. "Dad!" she whined, beginning to feel the embarrassment in full force.

"What?!" he said, faking the innocence clearly. "My finger slipped."

Gwen didn't decide to fight it. "Kevin ran over the sprinkler."

"The last sprinkler?"

"Yeah," the redhead confessed. "I keep breaking them."

A smile broke out on Kevin's face. He tried to hide it unsuccessfully. Of course.

Mr. Tennyson took the hose and put it down.

"Oh, and don't forget the sprinkler popped my tire," Kevin added, pointing to the flat.

"Really?" Frank asked. "Huh. That never happened before when I ran over it…"

The dark teen's gaze flicked to Gwen. "This has happened before."

"Yeah," she sighed.

"Well, I'll get the spare for you," Frank said, heading into the garage again and leaving the hose in the grass behind him.

Kevin took the opportunity to make up for what her father had interrupted. He leaned in and kissed her softly without a second thought about it before resuming his position.

Gwen looked over to him, awe-struck. She had only wished she'd had a chance to enjoy it more. "Kevin, what was that?!" she hissed. "My dad is going to KILL you!" Her complexion flushed with more anger and pink coloring.

"Then don't tell him," the boy replied and stood there, pretending like nothing had happened.

Huffing a little over it, the redhead brushed her hair out of her eyes. "I cannot believe you did that."

"You have pretty eyes," he murmured, moving in a little closer again.

The girl stood there, wondering what she'd missed somewhere in the course of their conversation.

Folding his arms across his chest and leaning on the car again as Frank came back, rolling a tire along the ground and carrying a small machine, Kevin was relaxed in the sunshine of the day. "Here's the spare and the car jack," Gwen's father said. "You can take care of it yourself, right? My daughter and I need to get back to the lawn."

"No problem," the dark teen replied with a stoic face. He took the items from the man and bent down to start working on his car.

Breathing, Gwen looked to her dad. "I think I'm going to stay here with Kevin and see if we can't salvage that sprinkler."

Mr. Tennyson sighed and saw the girl's pleading expression, begging almost. "Alright." He knew how she felt about this mysterious boy. The man disappeared around the back of the house again.

Flipping her hair over her shoulder, Gwen stared at Kevin. "Now are you going to tell me what that was all about?!" she growled fiercely, wanting an explanation.

"Can you hand me the car jack?"

Kevin's reply soothed Gwen. She knew he was retreating back into his cold, shadowy shell. Her hand brushed the cool metal of the tiny machine. "Here you go."

They spent the rest of the day trying to fix that tiny black and yellow sprinkler that had been wedged under Kevin's flat tire.

* * *

**A/N: I think this came out good. Any thoughts?**

**~Sky**


	17. Ken, Devlin, and Eliza

**A/N: I know I've been lagging a little on these, but here's a new one. I really like writing for these guys. May make a few one-shots just of them. The kids are actually pretty cool if you put them in the right context and all that crap.**

**Disclaimer: don't own Ben 10. do own Eliza**

* * *

Devlin pulled his pickup truck around to the front of the school.

"I'm serious. We could just drive this thing super fast and get there in no time flat!" Ken was arguing. "My dad says Kevin was late all the time. So what if Eliza misses the first few minutes? Big freaking deal."

"Yeah," muttered Devlin. He put the car in park and looked in the rearview to see nothing but smoke coming out of the tailpipe. "It _is_ a big freaking deal since she could kick both of our butts around the universe and back without even lifting a finger! Do you really want that?"

That got the tanned boy to shut up.

"Exactly." A smirk twisted the sixteen-year-old's lips

Ken opened his mouth again. "You're sister hit the mother load for powers."

"Yup."

"She's got everything!"

"Yup."

"She can open portals and she can do all that Anodite stuff and she's got the electricity like your dad used to have and his new absorbing powers too!"

"Yup."

"And even luckier, she got your dad's freaking attitude! This is why we don't argue with her!"

"Yup." Devlin was getting sick of agreeing.

"I don't know how you ever put up with her." Ken shook his head and brushed his brown hair out of his eyes. He kept talking. "As a friend, she's awesome. As a person, she's pretty cool. As a teammate, yeah, I can put up with her. But as a sister, I'd have to kill myself." He sipped on the smoothie at hand.

"Then never come to my house unless it's entirely necessary for your life."

The younger's gaze flicked to the driver, who was drumming his fingers on the ruined brown steering wheel. "Is she that bad?"

"Nah," Devlin joked. "She can be when it's girl stuff, but anything with aliens involved and she'll be pushing me out the door without another thought on what I'm doing at the moment. Once, she tried to put my jacket on while I was writing a report and she accidentally deleted the whole thing."

Ken winced. "Yeah, Eli would do that," he said, referring to her by her favorite nickname.

Just then, a darker form caught Devlin's eye. He adjusted the rearview mirror to see a pale skinned girl with striking ebony hair racing for the car, barely trying to pull a jacket on at the same time. It wasn't working. As the wind snatched her coat, she twisted so the long streak of red on one side was visible and her green eyes glinted angrily. "Dev, give me a hand please!"

The driver grinned and opened his door. "Give me your stuff."

The girl reluctantly handed it over and her brother chucked it into the backseat, holding the door open for her. Eliza's eyes narrowed. "I'm not one of those sissy chicks, you know," she pointed out, climbing into the back.

Devlin slammed the door shut, watching Eliza wince when it nearly slammed on her fingers. He smiled evilly.

"So anything new before I head to soccer?" she asked, yanking off her shoes and throwing them on the truck's floor. "And by the way, you guys are lucky this thing is a four-door or else you'd be screwed."

"Why?" Ken asked. His electric green gaze shifted over his shoulder to see the girl struggling with her second shoe.

"Because then one of you wouldn't get a seat." The shoe she was working on finally came off, flying to hit the windshield and leaving a good-sized dent in it.

Devlin looked back over his shoulder.

The girl stared for a few seconds. "Either you or Dad are going to kill me and I have a terrible feeling it's not going to be you."

Ken only smiled. "I could always-"

"DON'T CALL BEN!" Eliza yelled. "He'll tell Dad and I'll get in trouble and then Devlin will cover for me for about the million bajillionth time and then I'll end up owing him like a thousand dollars in the future and I'm pretty sure we all know that I won't have that much!" Her green eyes had flared from normal to the size of dinner plates. "No one is telling anyone that I broke the windshield!"

"We could always say a bird fell…" the younger of the boys suggested. Ken grinned, feeling brilliant for the day. It wouldn't last long.

The driver had to point out the obvious. "It's dented from the inside, you idiot. What are you going to say? The bird got inside through a window and died, then gravity decided to change and go the opposite direction so it'd fly up and hit the glass?"

Eliza put a hand to her forehead. "You guys make this way too complicated. Ugh." She took a marker and drew a circle around it. Then below she wrote, 'Ken wuz here'.

"You are-" Ken started, but then shut up when his green eyes met Eliza's.

"No one says anything, got it?"

Devlin chuckled and put the car in drive. "Dad is going to kill you."

The dark haired girl slugged her brother's shoulder. Not too hard though. "Dev, he's going to _slaughter_ me!"

"How many times have you broken Dev's car?" Ken asked, just for clarification.

"Twenty or thirty," the car's owner said, just as Eliza was choking out the word, "Three." She glared at him for a moment as he was looking back at her innocently. "I hate how much you're like Mom," the girl muttered. She pulled off her shirt to reveal a soccer jersey beneath it and a t-shirt under that.

The driver shrugged, pulling near one of the only grassy spaces for miles around. "We're here," he noted.

Eliza growled, "I noticed, you dumb-butt."

"Nice," Ken snickered only to get slugged like Devlin had been earlier. He rubbed his shoulder, not used to abuse from a girl.

She shrugged out of her black skinny jeans and straightened the tightly woven mesh shorts beneath them. "Pick me up after the game?" she asked her brother nicely as she reached down to slip her foot in a cleat. "Please?"

Devlin leaned back and put on a fake thoughtful face for a moment.

"Oh for the love of Mike," she muttered, hitting him yet again.

He laughed. "Yeah, yeah, we'll be here." He reached back and ruffled the girl's black hair with its streak of red. "Don't lose this time and no cheating."

Eliza looked up, putting on a fake stunned face. "How dare you accuse The Great Eliza of cheating!"

"Dad caught you," the driver told her.

"Aw man," she groaned. It was something she'd picked up from spending too much time over at Ken's with Ben. "I am sooooo dead now…"

"Join the club," Ken said, raising his smoothie for a toast only to have Eliza swat at his hand and mumble something about him being a moron.

She had laced up her shoe and looked out the window. "Okay, we're starting. See you guys in an hour!" The girl reached up, ruffled both their hair, then grabbed her bag and ran gracefully to the sidelines.

Ken stared after her. "Dev?"

Devlin rolled his eyes, expecting the worst as he usually had to.

"If she wasn't my second or third cousin or something like that, I would definitely date your sister."

"Jesus, Ken, there are things I do _not_ need to know." Devlin revved the car engine unnecessarily, and honked the horn.

Eliza looked over, gave one last wave and smiled.

"Well, I'm serious," Ken continued. He cocked his head a little, looking at her more. "She's pretty hot."

"You are absolutely _sick_."

"I know you can't judge 'cause she is your sister and everything, but I mean, if she wasn't-"

The driver cut him off, glad that he did so. "Ken, I really wonder why I'm friends with you sometimes."

"You aren't," he laughed. He sipped his smoothie. "I think my dad got me addicted to these things, you know?"

A tiny pink portal opened and a hand came in to whack the back of Ken's brunette little head. Smoothie sprayed across the windshield. The hand disappeared inside the portal before it closed quietly.

Devlin's eyes cut to the window to see Eliza grinning wildly and pulling up her hair into a ponytail. She gave him a quick thumbs-up.

"On second thought, I still hate your sister," Ken said, looking at the windshield.

"Now you really did ruin the car," Devlin pointed out. "My dad is _not_ going to be very happy with you."

Ken's eyes widened. "PLEASE DON'T TELL HIM!"

* * *

**A/N: notice how none of them want to be in trouble with Kevin? Yeah. I wouldn't want to be in trouble with him either… A few things:**

**Did you like Eliza? She was insanely fun to write for!**

**Was Devlin good enough? He seemed nicer in the episode than everyone writes him as. I thought he'd be a softy like Gwen. Lol.**

**Ken…Ken… I mean, really? He's just like Ben all over again, but weirder and paired with Devlin and Eliza, I thought he wasn't as good as Ben, but still funny…**

**I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this one especially because I might turn it into a totally different series of one-shots or something. Or a future meets past thing. Idk. I wanna know what you thought of the characters (especially Eliza!) R&R please! Thankz!**

**~Sky**


	18. Poison

**A/N: okay, just winging it! New poll up on my profile! Vote on it! **

* * *

She held him to the seat, hoping he'd survive. Hoping for a miracle. She ran her fingers through the deep ebony strands of his hair. Gwen reached to his pocket to look for the keys. Where were they? Where were the keys? Why wasn't Ben there? Where was he? Why didn't he show?

"Oh my God," Gwen murmured, fumbling over the keys for a few seconds, looking for the right one while Kevin laid limp beside her in the passenger seat. Her green gaze cast over to him for a second to make sure his chest was still rising and falling in the rhythm to his breathing. At least he was breathing.

Her auburn tinted hair fell into her emerald eyes and she regretted pulling it down again for him, the way he liked it. He liked to run his fingers through it. She hissed when the next key she tried didn't work. Neither did the next one. Or the next one.

This got the girl frustrated. She finally got the right one, feeling the engine hum to life beneath her and it purred like a kitten.

"Kev?" she asked. "You still there?"

There was a nearly inaudible moan and she put a hand over his. Gwen looked over to see him still breathing, still alive. Her heart pounded and she floored the gas and took the car onto the darkened black highway.

"It hurts…" he groaned beside her. Kevin squeezed Gwen's hand, reassuring her that he could fight it.

Gwen wasn't convinced. She kept the speedometer around a hundred and some miles an hour. Her adrenaline was pumping faster. The redhead looked down at him to see his eyes shut and his face twisted into a grimace of agony. "I'm sorry," she muttered.

"S'kay," he was able to say, feeling the poison set in. He writhed slightly, trying to fight it so not to worry Gwen.

She would never be convinced. Her eyes were focused on the road. "It's my fault," she growled, sick of hearing him tell her he was fine and that she didn't do it.

"No, it's not," he insisted for a moment, ready to go on only to shudder violently as his body began to give in. "Ben should've been here."

The redhead reached over to run a finger along his cheek, feeling his rocky face cold as ice. "Kevin, don't leave me yet."

Another shiver consumed him and he felt it all going fuzzy. He couldn't find the energy to answer her. His mind was numbing. His throat was dry and closing in. His chocolate eyes began to close slowly as he shook.

The tears welled up in her eyes and she saw all the lights ahead go blurry. "Kevin, I'm right here. Don't lose my voice. I'm here."

His body was still.

"Kev, I'm here," she cried, knowing it was too late for anything. He was fading away faster than she had hoped.

Kevin's skin burned like fire as he realized this was the end. He closed his hand a little tighter around Gwen's knowing it was all he could do before his fingers went dead. He was losing all feeling.

Her tears turned to sobs and she let the car's engine take a short break, slowing it down. Her eyes began to hurt as the tears faded and Kevin was still beside her.

His chest didn't rise and fall. He didn't move. He didn't open his perfect obsidian eyes. He lay there, so cold. So still.

Gwen felt her heart shattering and she sank into the seat, her head back against the leather as she looked up to the ceiling. The girl prayed for a miracle. She prayed for a small hope. Anything. Anything to keep Kevin with her. She put her hand on his chest to feel the familiar warmth disappearing within him. "Kevin, I'm sorry."

Not sure what to do, she took the car back to the garage and sat there for a while, keeping quiet. She knew this wouldn't be easy. She'd have to tell Ben that he was dead. She'd have to call his mom and explain. It would take forever. Gwen felt her head throbbing at the thought of it. And at the aspect of living without Kevin.

Her life would be a mess. She'd never want to live. He was all she really wanted in the world. She got up every day to see his face, his smile. She got up to hear him laugh. Without him… she was nothing. She was just another girl with another cousin fighting another group of aliens out to destroy the world. Kevin made it special. He made everything right.

Feeling the failure setting in like the poison, Gwen began crying harder than before, her whole body rattling with the pain of it.

She had felt him die beneath her fingers. She had watched his perfect darkened eyes close for the last time. She had seen his final breath and his strong chest fall.

Confused, shattered, and lonely, Gwen took her hand and put it over him one last time, just for good measure. He was cold as stone. Kevin was gone.

Her heart broke.

Gwen left the garage, Kevin still in the passenger seat.

The next morning, she took Ben down, not having the heart to tell him what really happened. The tears still streamed down her face uncontrollably. Her heart pounded, hoping that she would be able to survive seeing his body again with the absence of his life and soul.

"Hey, Kevin," Ben called into the garage as he had his arm around Gwen, hoping that his friend would be able to comfort her better than he could. He didn't even understand what was wrong.

The redheaded girl gave another shudder and put her hands over her face.

"Gwen, what's wrong?" A stronger arm wrapped itself around her waist and pulled her into a strong wall-like chest smelling of grease and metal and dust, which she didn't mind at all. The voice was the comfort, the warmth was the life. She knew that she could make it now. "What happened?"

Ben just shrugged, looking at Kevin. "She's been crying all night. I came to get her this morning and wondered why you didn't get there first."

The dark teen brushed the red strands from Gwen's face. "I got her, Ben. Your smoothie is in the back."

The brunette boy took off at top speed into the back room of the garage.

"Gwen, will you be quiet for just a second?" Kevin asked, running his fingers through her hair. He pressed his lips to her forehead feeling her sobbing stronger than ever. "I'm right here."

* * *

**A/N: Don't ask. Just enjoy. R&R!**

**~Sky**


	19. Tidbits 1

**A/N: didn't want to write out a ton of arguments in one, so here's this new thing I'm calling, 'Tidbits of Arguments'. There's gunna b a few installments along the way through out Car Arguments. Here's the first installment!**

**K= Kevin (LOVE HIM!!!!!)**

**G= Gwen (…meh)**

**B= Ben (BAHAHAHAHAHA!!)**

**J= Julie (prob not a lot of her ^_^)**

* * *

K= "This car isn't submersible yet."

G= "I can put it in a mana bubble and we could always drive it into the ocean and-"

K= (eyes get real wide) "NO!"

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B= "There are these things called smoothies. Try one some time."

K= "I'd rather dump it on your head, if you don't mind."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B= "Why can't we hang our heads out the window like dogs? I mean, if they like it, it's got to be cool!"

G= "Knock yourself out."

Five minutes later

B= (pulls head in window with huge bruise on cheek) "KEVIN, YOU MADE ME HIT THAT SIGN ON PURPOSE!"

K= (holds hands up innocently) "You're head was out the window!"

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

G= "Why won't you ask me out?"

K= "Maybe I don't feel like it."

G= (hits Kevin nice and hard)

K= (whimpers) "That hurt."

G= "Good." (folds arms across chest and stares out window triumphantly)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B= "I swear, if you guys want to suck face in the car, can you at least warn me first?"

K+G= (pull apart from kiss)

G= (wraps mana around Ben's mouth so he'll shut up for once)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K= "When's the Sumo Slammers movie coming out?"

G= "Why do you care?"

B= (squeals) "THIS SUMMER! EEEEEEEE!!!!!"

K+G= (blink a few times)

K= "Dude, you are _such_ a girl."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K= "Gwen, people don't shoot people. People with guns shoot people."

G= "Then what do people with plasma blasters do?"

K= (stares out windshield) "Aliens don't shoot people. Aliens with plasma blasters shoot people." (gets a smug grin while Gwen turns away, feeling dumb)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B= "Wanna know what causes global warming?"

G= (looks back at him) "Gases in the atmosphere creating holes in it to allow ultra-violet rays to enter but not escape. Duh."

B= "Nope." (grins evilly) "Kevin's face." (hits concrete five seconds later as car speeds off into distance)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

G= "Did you ever notice how round Ben's hair is?"

B+K= (stare at her awkwardly)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

J= "What time is it?"

B= (starts drumming on his thighs before singing) "WHAT TIME IS IT? SUMMER TIME!"

J= (puts hand over his mouth to get Ben to shut up)

K= (looks back and shakes head, wondering why the girl was dumb enough to date the idiot in the first place)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K= "The earth is square."

G= "No it's not."

K= "But if it was, could I fall off?"

G= "There's this new thing, Kevin. It's called 'gravity'."

K= "Oh yeah. That's the reason Ben falls every time I trip him."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B= "I want my name to be Carlos."

K= "Okay, Benji."

B= (stares thoughtfully into distance for a second) "Actually, I want to be called Ben Ben Tennyson for the rest of my life."

K= "Whatever you say, Benji."

B= "THAT'S NOT MY NAME!"

G= "But it is a movie."

B= "What the heck, Gwen. What the heck."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

G= "You know you love me."

K= "Don't start putting words in my mouth."

G= "I'll kiss you if you shut up."

K= "Deal."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K= "If a turtle loses it's shell, is it naked or homeless?"

G= (blinks a few times) "What?!"

B= "Probably both."

G= "Why does it matter?"

K= "Just curious."

B= "Curiosity killed the cat and I'm sure it can kill you too, Kevin."

K= (gets a smug grin) "Wanna know what can kill you?"

B= "What?"

K= "Me and my car."

* * *

**A/N: These will come up when I lose an idea or just plain out can't think of anything. Hope you enjoyed them! They were fun! Please review! Thankies!**

**~Sky**


	20. Random Ways To Annoy Ben

**A/N: 'Time Heals': I watched it at 7 this morning bcuz I had bball and a party last nite when it was on (btw, totally spazzed out when my calendar on my phone went off to tell me that it was on in five mins). I was practically in tears when Kevin was going to pound Gwen and decided to stand there instead and u knew he was gunna attack anywayz, but it was sad. And very hard to see Ben that weak. I was sadder about that than everything else. And Kevin would still pwn all so it doesn't matter whether he mutated or not. Lol. But it wasn't that funny. Gwen cannot be funneh!!! Idk y. if she tried she culd b, but she wasn't… only Paradox was. And another thing, SHE KNOWS A TIMETRAVELER! WHY NOT JUST ASK HIM TO GO BACK AND CHANGE IT????? Ugh. I was mad about that. Moving on now. Srry.**

**okay, these have been down for awhile, but this is a good one. Another awkward moment that Kevin decides to instigate. Let's just say this was before Julie or after her.**

**Disclaimer: ppsssshhhh. Eliza and Willow own Alien Force!!! Jk jk. Man of Action does. He's not me, btw.**

* * *

Ben looked at Kevin, praying silently that he wouldn't decide to choose this exact moment to embarrass him. Of course, that jinxed it.

"So Ben, did you remember to take your meds?" the dark teen laughed, reaching up to brush ebony strands of hair out of his gorgeous onyx eyes. He was so full of himself. "You know, the anti-crazy ones?" Kevin suppressed a smile.

He had to find a way out of this one. "Yeah, Kev-y, I did." _How was it going to work?_ _My life is going to be a living nightmare with Kevin._ Ben's thoughts strayed from the present with Willow in the car to the future and how this whole team thing was going to work out with the con artist.

This pressed a definite fight between the two. "Did you really? I mean, there are, like, thirty some you're supposed to be taking so you don't have an Incredible Hulk moment and destroy the town again like you did last time before you moved here." Kevin kept his focus on the road while his mind searched for another way to ruin the brunette boy's life.

"Yes. You helped me count them out, remember? Or did you? I forgot that you might not be able to remember what number five is."

The driver's face heated up as all the blood flushed his cheeks a bright red to contrast his pale skin. "And did you remember to bring an extra pair of pants?"

Ben's eyebrow rose. This was going to kill him. "Why?"

"You know. That condition where you can't help but wet yourself every ten minutes or something I think." Kevin was struggling to keep this up. Coming up with something else embarrassing every ten seconds was going to get hard eventually.

"Yeah. I borrowed a pair of your tighty whiteys before we left." Ben grinned, proud of himself for thinking up that one. His green gaze flicked to the girl beside him.

Her name was Willow and her hair was a reddish brown, almost copper color with streaks of blonde when the light hit it perfectly. Her smile made his heart soar past the edge of the universe and Kevin was totally ruining the moment. Her face was in a grin and her face was filled with a pastel pink blush since her skin was sun kissed and gorgeously tanned. Ben found himself smiling and her eyes met his. Hazel beyond belief. Flecked with gold and light greens and oaken browns. He found himself head over heels with her.

"Ben?" Kevin asked, reaching back to wave a hand in front of his face. "Dude, your drooling."

He caught himself a second too late and it dripped all over the front of his black shirt. It caused the driver to burst out laughing.

Willow smiled, fingering the amulet of an ivory wolf pendant and Native American beads around her neck. She shyly brushed her silky straight hair from her face, seeing Ben's expression disgusted with himself.

"Um…" Ben was still sitting there, dumbfounded.

"So about those crazy pills…" Kevin began, trying to remember how much more material he had for annoying Ben.

"I took them." Ben tried to wipe the spit from his mouth. It was still on his shirt though. He couldn't help it.

This was getting harder, Kevin decided. "And have you called your Grandpa today? You know you can't go anywhere without calling him first. Remember, Benji?" he asked, reaching back to poke the Omnitrix wielder. "Remember? Huh, Benji? Huh?" He constantly poked him every second or two.

Annoyed, the brunette boy turned his sights to the window and fingered the buttons on the Omnitrix, trying to decide whether or not to go alien and wipe Kevin's butt all over the car's windshield. **(A/N: could never happen.)**

"No…" Ben sighed, knowing he'd have to go through with it now. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his tiny green cell phone. Then wondered why Gwen hadn't decided to hang out with Kevin while Ben was on his date. It hit him. She didn't want to take sides on these discussions. Especially the ones where Kevin was winning and usually, he won.

"Ben?" Grandpa Max asked, picking up his phone. "What's wrong?"

"Kevin reminded me that I have to call you before I can go anywhere. He's kind of being mean to me today. Could you talk to him?"

The driver's eyes got wide as he realized the point of this. He turned to look at Ben at the next stoplight. He kept mouthing the word 'NO!' over and over again. To no avail. The brunette boy took the phone and handed it up to the driver.

"Please, Ben, no!" Kevin tried to beg last night. He looked desperate, his onyx eyes pleading. "I'll let you forget your pills for the next week. Or so. And I'll leave you alone. And I'll be nicer-ish!"

With a devilish grin, Ben knew he had a bargaining tool. Talking was not one of Kevin's strong points and getting a lecture from Max was definitely as close to torture as it could get without physically hurting him and scarring him for life. "Ish?"

"You know what? Screw it." Kevin snatched the phone and held it to his ear. "Hey, Maxwell."

"What are you doing?" was the first thing he heard. "Can't you leave Ben alone?"

Kevin was silent for a few moments before he replied with, "No."

"Just for one day?" Max asked. "He's not your brother and it's not your job to annoy him. You fix cars. Stick with that."

"Yea-no."

"Give the phone back to Ben."

The dark teen grinned. He handed the green painted phone back to Ben, dropping it in his palm. "He wants to talk to you now." Kevin turned back to the road and realized it was getting harder to come up with ways to annoy Ben. "Don't get him mad or he may have a heart attack."

That was a laugh. Both of them knew Max was tougher than a rock. And Kevin, which was hard to beat.

"Hey, Grandpa."

"Don't let Kevin get you down." The line went dead.

Ben looked to find that Max had hung up on him. He flipped the phone closed and stuffed it back into his rear pocket. "He had to go think of a punishment for you Kevin for ditching school again. What is that now? The millionth day?"

Kevin was silent for only a second before answering, "Maybe. I lost count after a hundred or so."

The pier came into view. "Okay, you guys can leave me alone now so I can drive off and make fun of you behind your backs."

"With Gwen?" Ben asked.

"She's busy." Kevin's eyes flicked to the rearview. They both knew what that meant. "You know, school and books and everything."

In other words, she was at home, uselessly reading through spell books. So far, even with Ben and Kevin helping, the cure was nowhere near being found.

"So did you remember to pay off those speeding tickets yet?"

"Get outta my car." Kevin sank back into the driver's seat.

Ben looked over to the girl next to him and found her staring and holding her hand over her mouth, stifling laughter. "You guys are funny," she said softly, her giggling just causing Ben to blush and Kevin smile widely.

"We noticed," they both said at the same time.

* * *

**A/N: lol. I kinda liked the end better, but I had to come up with something and it was another one of those 'I'm gunna wing it' times. R&R!**

**~Sky**


	21. Clam Chowder

**A/N: ack. Sis took computer to a friend's house. Another chappie of Warped WOULD be up, but since I didn't get around to uploading it to the site, yeah. So you'll have to wait til tomorrow for that. Sorry. BTW!! GOT HUNDREDTH REVIEW! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! For the celebration, here's some more arguing.**

**Disclaimer: Man of Action owns Ben 10. I don't. Still, I believe we should all join together to buy it from him and write all the Gwevin-y fics that we really want to see, even if it is just a kid's show.**

* * *

"So how's your clam chowder?"

The ride had been quiet with just the subtle purring of the engine to keep the silence calming. It was a cooler night with the stars blazing brightly overhead to illuminate the road ahead with the waning moon.

Debating whether to break the silence to talk to Gwen, Kevin's knuckles were a snowy white shade, his blood circulating around the veins of his hand instead. It was an intense battle with Ben in the backseat who would ruin everything on a moment's notice without caring or noticing the awkwardness. His onyx gaze flicked to the red haired girl in the passenger seat.

The light from outside made her face seem ghostly pale, her heart shaped lips drawing him in like a magnet and she was staring out the window. Her eyes were captivated with the luminescence of the world around them. This darkness was strange for her. She was almost always used to the light of the day, but this blackened state of night clouding around them was like a shield, blocking out everything to their eyes. Gwen enjoyed it greatly, her mouth turning up in a warming smile.

Kevin's face was glowing, she noticed, looking over to him. His new "skin" had metallic properties, bouncing every kind of glow off of him to make him radiate like the sun. She could see his face was pained, but didn't dare break the silence, knowing he was ready to snap with that kind of expression. His dark orbs for eyes were focused on the road, glinting with this hidden emotion she couldn't recognize on him.

The brunette teen in the back was a shadow, fading to black, shaded from every source of the light. The roof of the car concealed his view and his focus was stuck to the road with it being all he could see. Ben folded his arms across his chest, waiting for some brilliant idea to strike.

Car rolling along, the three remained in this suspended silence. Until Ben spoke.

"So how's your clam chowder?"

Kevin and Gwen were left wondering whether he had actually spoken or not. They both understood that this silence had been broken, but the two weren't sure if they'd heard him correctly.

"What?!" Kevin was the first to spit out.

Ben smiled, gladly repeating himself. "So how's your clam chowder?" He whipped his head, the muddy brown colored hair flipping out of his forest green colored eyes.

"Clam chowder?" Gwen asked, still wondering if she'd heard his voice at all. Her head spun to look at Ben. He was shrouded in darkness and his face twisted in an arrogant, mischievous smirk. Of course. Mess with them while he can.

"Yes, how's your clam chowder?"

Kevin's nerves were already on end. Ben wasn't making it much better. He could feel the adrenaline pumping before he had even said his next sentence. "What clam chowder?!"

"The clam chowder named Peter."

"What?!" Kevin asked, getting very annoyed.

Gwen was dumb enough to ask. "You named clam chowder?"

Still confused, Kevin repeated, "What?!"

"Peter. The clam chowder." Ben was fighting off his smug grin. It wasn't working. His face was stuck between a stoic expression and a fiercely wide smile, making him look like a tortured zombie with burning flesh.

"What?!"

"Is that all you can say?" Gwen asked, her focus suddenly on Kevin.

Kevin wasn't sure how this turned on him suddenly. He'd just been confused and snapping out the first thing that came to mind was a good way of venting out frustration. "What?!"

"Clam chowder. How is it?" Ben repeated for the fifth time.

"I don't have any clam chowder!" exclaimed the driver. His knuckles had turned to icy white as he clenched the wheel harder, feeling it ready to snap under his grip.

"That's what I thought." The brunette teen leaned into the backseat again, letting the entire car fall back into the familiar silence.

Stars blazed brightly overhead. The moon shone down on the blacktopped highway, giving it a gray glow. The hum of the engine was the only sound that thrummed through Gwen and Kevin's thoughts as they tried to figure out what had just happened. The redhead was wondering what the dark teen that she loved was thinking.

All he could think was, _I don't even like clam chowder._

* * *

**A/N: Another one like 'Breathe' and 'Poison' is coming soon. It's in my head. I just gotta get it down. Hope you guys will like it and hope you liked this one! Comments are appreciated! Thanks for reading!**

**~Sky**


	22. Hedrons

**A/N: me and JennaSan wuz on da bus and this came up. hope you like it.**

* * *

Gwen slid into the passenger seat, her hair mussed and frizzy, still hanging around her shoulders. "Don't say a word," she snarled. "If you do, I throw you out that windshield and run you over, back it up, and run you over again." She threw her backpack on the car's floor and unzipping it quickly.

Suppressing a chuckle, Kevin eyed her carefully with an honest smile. "You're beautiful," he told her softly, leaning over to peck her cheeks.

She pushed him away. "Not now, Kevin." Any other day, she would've loved to drink him in all over. Him kissing her was a rare thing that she often enjoyed and coveted. "I have to finish my homework." Gwen wished she had finished it last night so she could have this little time with Kevin. This was the little time they had together when they weren't fighting aliens or stuck in school.

The dark teen raised an eyebrow. "You?" He reached over to brush her hair out of her face, hand gentle against her cheek as his fingertips grazed the skin there. "Is this really Gwendolyn Tennyson?"

"Yes," she replied with a sigh, pulling out a set of thin markers and some papers that needed coloring. "It _is_ me, but I have to finish this. I'm sorry. Not now." Gwen was tempted to lean over and kiss him long and hard. Loving him made the world difficult.

Kevin gave a little grunt of annoyance that the red-haired girl beside him clearly recognized. He drove her to school. He drove her home. He deserved some kind of love. Silently, she leaned over and gave him a kiss.

He loved that. The engine revved as she pulled away and he decided to actually drive her to school. Without a little motivation, Kevin was barely more than a potato. "So why didn't you do your homework?" he had the courage to ask, hoping he wouldn't get thrown through the windshield, run over, backed over, and then run over again. The suspension on the wheels probably wouldn't have been able to take that.

"I was too busy last night." She fell silent for a moment. "Looking for a cure still."

His face went grim. "Gwen, it doesn't matter."

"It does!" she fought, involuntary tears on the brink of falling in her emerald eyes. "It does to you and to me because I should've stopped you!"

Reaching over, Kevin wove his arm around her waist, feeling his skin pressed harshly against the leather. But he didn't move. She leaned into his touch, knowing he was there in every form, monster or that boy she'd fell in love with.

She remembered the work in her lap. "Kevin, not now," she repeated, still leaning into his warm embrace but taking out the markers.

"Please make sure they don't draw on the leather," the driver mumbled, not wanting to accuse her, but just wanted to make sure his car wasn't ruined by… markers. He fought back a tiny shudder.

With an emerald glare from Gwen, Kevin shrunk back, deciding that driving should be a priority. But he wasn't happy about that silence that hung in the air. "What do you have to color?" the ebony haired boy asked, trying to sound nice about it.

"These stupid 3D shapes." She scrawled a pattern of a checkerboard on one and began to color it in. "It's for this science thing."

Compelled to raise and eyebrow, Kevin did exactly that.

"You like this school stuff, don't you?" Gwen asked with a tiny laugh. She looked over at him out of the corner of her eye to see his face twisted with this curiosity, mouth ready for another question only to have hers shut him up.

"No." His quick retort was a lie. "Sitting in a desk for six hours? No way." His onyx eyes proved otherwise.

She examined him closer. "Kevin, I could definitely imagine you being smart for once in your life. You'd be a brilliant student if you'd put the effort into it."

He immediately shrugged it off. "What are you coloring?" He had to get the topic off himself. Kevin and school didn't even belong in the same sentence in his opinion. "Some 3D stuff you said?"

"Mhm." She took the next marker and scribbled down a bunch of little dots on it. "I have to color all these." She shuffled through a pile of papers, each with another three dimensional shape plastered on it in a two dimensional form. "It's going to take _forever_."

Kevin smiled. "Don't be such a drama queen," he laughed lightly. One of the pages caught his eye. "What the heck is that?"

"It's a dodecahedron."

"A DECAWHATCHAMAWHOZY?!"

Gwen couldn't help but burst out laughing as Kevin's eyes got as wide as the sun, shining it's dark rays across her face and over those papers. She smiled big and wide. "I take that back. You would never survive in school."

* * *

**A/N: this was hysterical! I loved saying it more than writing this! enjoy! Reviews are mucho appreciated!**

**~Sky**

**P.S. new poll up on my profile! Cast your vote now!**


	23. Gems and Rocks

**A/N: had to get another one of these up!! Major fluff here!! You know how a good color for Kevin's eyes is described as obsidian?? Yeah, I just found out what obsidian is today… well, I googled it before, but I'm actually learning about it now!! So I'm HyPeD!!! Hope this one turns out well…**

**Disclaimer: don't own anything. I shall find a way to buy Kevin tho…**

* * *

Kevin looked over to Gwen's books splayed out over the hood of the car. They were mostly science-y. Crap, in his opinion. He sat innocently, leaning up against the car with a smile playing across his face. "Why do you have to study? It's Sunday. Time to chillax." He spun a wrench around his finger, grinning wider when it flew off and crashed into the floor with a clatter.

The redheaded girl jumped at the sound. She looked up from her notes and the text printed finely on the white paper. "Kevin, I can't." She let out an irritated sigh before leaning over the pages once more. This was interesting, but Kevin's distractions wasn't making it easy for her to concentrate.

"Whatcha learnin' about anyways?" He used the car to brace himself as he got himself up and off the cold floor. His dark eyes scanned the letters. "Rocks?"

"Yes," she confirmed slowly. Her eyes took in the words while her brain registered the information. "Rocks."

The dark teen looked a little closer, thinking about his ID mask and the features buried under it. Tetonite. Iron. Wood. Stone. What were they? He didn't actually want to ask because she'd give him a flood of data that was too much for him to compute. He'd settle with just another one word question. "Why?"

"Because it's important and part of the geology course." She flipped a page, brushing some strands of red behind her ear. They kept on getting in the way. And of course, they fell right back into her face. Gwen had forgotten to bring a hair tie. She cursed herself for it. "There's igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. It's hard, but interesting. I mean, all these fossils and stones and gems and minerals…"

Kevin ran his calloused fingers through that fiery hair. He propped himself up with one elbow and flipped the page again. "Cool."

She could feel tiny waves of sarcasm floating off of him, but for the most part, she found him entirely serious about this. Gwen loved the way his breath made her hand feel all warm and tingly. She traced a pattern on her book, not exactly sure what it was, but the way her touch ran across the page was entrancing. "Yup." The girl flipped the page back.

"Hey!" Kevin put one arm around her and used the other hand to turn the page back. "I wasn't done reading that yet!"

"You don't even care."

"I am a freaking rock. How can I not care about myself, Gwen?" He turned the page back, giving her a bit of a glare while he stared at images of the gems and minerals on the paper.

The girl bit her tongue, wishing she wasn't studying geology while Kevin was still in his current form. He was still Kevin underneath it all, heart beating, growing, changing. He was that con-artist too, but that part of him was buried deeper. She should've watched her words more. And picked where she studied with a bit more caution. Gwen looked over to Kevin, her gaze catching his. "No, you're not a rock. You're Kevin. You're the guy I love."

He gave her a tiny sheepish grin, staring into her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Gwen realized something. "Obsidian."

"Must I ask what that means or shall my brilliant redhead explain for me?" He leaned against the hood of the car more, running his hand up her neck and tangling his fingers in her straight mane of scarlet again. Kevin drank in her scent of cotton candy. Some days, it was strawberry. Others, watermelon. But he loved the days when she smelled like sugary cotton candy. She reminded him of a carnival. A strange one, wild, but he didn't care. She was Gwen and he loved her.

She was lost in his eyes. "Obsidian." Then regained a bit of thought. She was so distracted with his intoxication. "It's a rock."

"Mhm." Kevin flipped the page once more. "And?"

Gwen stared into his eyes longer. "Your eyes are obsidian. The same color."

"And what is obsidian?" the dark teen asked once more.

"It's an igneous rock," the red-haired girl continued. "Black. Shining. Beautiful. A rare volcanic glass. Usually found in rhyolitic lava flows." She was totally preoccupied with staring into those deep brown and ebony orbs. He was addictive like a drug, but calming like the ocean. Kevin was her personal bucket of contradictions in a gorgeously wrapped package. "It's a gemstone, but not exactly a gem or a mineral. So it's a rock."

That didn't help Kevin's self-esteem at all. He tilted his head, taking his hand and placing it under her chin, turning her face towards him so they had direct eye contact. "So my eyes are like rocks?"

Gwen knew this was true in a way, but also not because beneath that black was a tint of dark hazel and deep shades of brown. "Perfect rocks."

"Then yours are like emeralds. Gems." He pointed to the book. Kevin wasn't prone to being entirely lost in something. But Gwen's eyes were exactly like that. A shock of jade coloring and sparkling beyond belief. He smiled that breath-taking smile. He remembered back when they were kids and they were more of an electric green, a color he still loved, but this darker green was what he had truly grown attached to.

The girl pressed herself into Kevin's chest. "You're not a rock."

"But you are a gem." He kissed her forehead and knew this was exactly how he wanted every day to go for the rest of his life.

* * *

**A/N: awww… not an argument, but the car was a very good table!!! Poor car… review!!**

**~Sky**


	24. Fight It Out

**A/N: this is… just how my life is going lately…**

**Disclaimer: own nothing.**

* * *

"GWEN, YOU DON'T GET IT!" yelled Kevin, his voice raised to drown out the humming of the engine and the words that Gwen was trying to get out over his voice. He jerked the steering wheel so the car rounded a corner, nearly hitting a boy on his bike.

Ben slumped down in the backseat, turning up his iPod a bit more, praying that it would end soon. So far, Kevin and Gwen were drowning out the music too. He was shaking as the car took another sharp turn for the worse, the argument growing in size and volume.

It wasn't a battle worth fighting.

"CAN'T YOU JUST LISTEN TO ME, KEVIN?!" Gwen was screeching, trying to be heard.

His eyes were dark and glistening with that venomous touch of malice. "I DON'T CARE!"

"YOU SHOULD!"

The brunette in the backseat dropped his head, pulling the collar of his jacket around his face. So far, he was barely able to muffle the sound of their raised voices.

"THIS IS SERIOUS!" Gwen's face was red from the shouting and pain of focus on this topic, whatever it was. She was tired of fighting. Sure, it was one of Kevin's favorite hobbies to bother her, but this was going a little far, even for his standards.

Kevin was flushed pale, his knuckles white against the steering wheel as he took a serious mental beating from the girl in the passenger seat.

Ben closed his eyes and remembered a few breathing techniques, hoping this would help him calm down for himself. He needed to take a break from the stress between Gwen and Kevin. They weren't making life easy on him and they probably never would. But it was the way they were and he wouldn't change them if he could.

Well maybe Kevin…

"WHAT PART OF 'I DON'T CARE!' ARE YOU NOT UNDERSTANDING HERE?!" Kevin was now yelling at the top of his lungs, blood boiling over with the raging demons that raced through his veins. Silently, he was cursing himself for not ending it. He shouldn't have even started it. He should've kept his stupid mouth shut and moved on with life. But surrender wasn't an option for the raven-haired teen who lived his life of crime simply and cunningly, without a doubt and making sure that submitting to any opponent was not an option. Not even Gwen.

Her eyes were tired and bloodshot from crying herself out, tearstains on her porcelain cheeks. She was so exhausted with trying to solve this. He was Kevin, he wasn't giving in. But she wouldn't either. "ALL OF IT, KEVIN!" she screamed, her lungs filling with air for it. "I LOVE YOU AND THIS ISN'T MAKING THAT VERY EASY FOR ME!"

"THEN JUST SHUT UP!"

Those last words echoed through the car.

Ben was shaking with his own swelling fury. This was going a bit over the edge, bringing love into everything. He knew Gwen's stopping point and she was reaching it, dangerously close to being pushed over the edge.

And Kevin was ready to make her jump instead of fall.

The car slowed down for mere moments as Kevin toned himself down a few notches.

"Because maybe I don't love you back," the dark teen said, voice full of steel. He wasn't backing down and he'd found the turning point, his edge to winning at last.

That was the end. The end of that.

Gwen wasn't about to take another hit from her so-called boyfriend. He was just another one of those meaningless little bumps in the road. A really annoying one at that. The redhead felt stupid from even falling into Kevin's trap.

Realizing his mistake a second too late, Kevin's unbreakable face softened. "Gwen," he started, but she was already off his train, disappearing into the distance, putting up her defenses once again to shield herself from the coming of pain that would wash over her features as soon as she was out of his sights.

"Don't talk to me." The shield was up, protecting, blocking and keeping Gwen from the danger as she knew would ensue as soon as Kevin decided to try and get this over with.

Ben was glad he could hear himself think again. He pulled out the ear buds so he could hear the results.

"YOU TALK TO ME, GWENDOLYN TENNYSON!"

He immediately put the music back on and hooked himself up to hear it again at full volume against the already competing noise of the car as it took another sharp turn, speed picking up to dangerous levels around at least a hundred and some miles an hour.

Just as the argument was picking up again, so was the ride.

"NO!"

"LISTEN TO ME!"

"NO!"

Kevin was ready to reach over and strangle her, but he loved her too much to do that. He braced himself with that stupid little thing called 'self-control'. He flexed his fingers against the wheel. "I went to far," he said softly.

"SHUT UP, KEVIN!"

"YOU SHUT UP!"

"BOTH OF YOU JUST SHUT UP!"

The two looked back to see Ben's green eyes alight with his own madness. He had bolted upright from his original folded into the leather seats position. Sick of this craziness from the his teammates, he stepped it up. "YOU'VE BEEN LIKE THIS FOR DAYS NOW OVER NOTHING AT ALL! THERE'S NO REASON TO FIGHT! JUST GET ALONG FOR FIVE MINUTES SO WE DON'T LOSE TO ANOTHER GROUP OF STINKING FOREVER KNIGHTS, GOT IT?!" The boy sank back again. "Now shut up and drive. We have some butt to kick."

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.

* * *

**A/N: right now, I am stuck in the position of Ben… neutral and suffering. Lol. But this is the tru meaning of 'Car Arguments'. Like it? Love it? Tell me!**

**~Sky**

**p.s. winging it also includes the fact that I have no clue what they were arguing about in the first place!!!**


	25. Snowmobile

**A/N: so I just realized the last fic was really contrasting to the one before it. Let's take it to another Gwevin moment to keep that little theme going for now!**

**okay, so this is another one of those crazy things that my LA teacher tellz us. All we usually hear is metaphors, beautiful words and symbols, and crazy stories so we don't always learn a ton, but we get by with straight A's as long as we do our hmwk. So I have a lot of freetime to write. Or at least sketch stuff out…**

**The point, this is a crazy story from my LA teacher!! Got it? Awesome!**

**Disclaimer: I own Ben 10. Yes, yes I do. Psh! I wish!!!**

* * *

The snow fell in crystalized shapes and patterns around the green and black vehicle as it swerved around another corner, the two occupants of the car snug with the heat at full blast. The driver was bundled in a lightweight black jacket; strange for the wintery weather. Not like he cared in the slightest. The passenger had her head leaned against the window, a green and blue and white hat with a little pompom on the top. The driver's only thought on it was that it made her look sickeningly and painfully adorable. It made him want to kiss her just that much more.

Stupid hat.

Kevin wore his normal devilish smirk, his hands loose on the steering wheel. One finger tapped along to the beat of some random punky song that was background music in the car. It was just him and Gwen, Ben off for another date with Julie. The pier, of course. Kevin being a chauffer kind of sucked, but he had fun torturing Ben no matter where they were. But he liked spending time with Gwen. So he deemed the driving worth it.

Analyzing his face, the redhead could easily detect his thoughts, not through mana, but through the experiences that they'd always been through together. When he smiled like that… Gwen knew problems would only come with it. "What are you scheming?" The ride had almost been completely void of conversation.

"Scheming?" He put up that faker's face that he had excelled at. Being a con-man made things like that easy in a sense of the word. More like easy peasy lemon pie. He liked his own version of the phrase better.

"Yes, Kevin." She put one hand to support her head instead of leaning against the window. "What are you planning today?"

He debated telling her his thought process and a thin layer of snow had accumulated on the hood of the car at a stoplight. It all suddenly flew up towards the windshield as the car was suddenly thrown back into motion. The wipers kicked it off the sides of the glass. "Just a thought."

Gwen let out a little sigh. "Could you explain this thought?" She wondered why his brain hadn't exploded from thinking.

"I could…" He said no more, only gliding the car around another turn towards the highway. They weren't going back to the garage and they had no plans, so why not just drive for the night?

"And you probably should…" Gwen wanted him to continue. But she wasn't going to risk pushing him over his edge.

"That I should." He said no more.

The girl huffed. "Tell me or I kill the car."

Kevin let out a true laugh, no chuckling or snickering, but a real laugh for the first time in a long time. His eyes were wary and guarded. It wasn't that he was scared. He was scared for the car. "You wouldn't."

A bit of mana appeared, slowly swirling around her hand in a pink glow of energy. "Wanna bet on that?"

He smiled. "I was just planning."

"Planning? You? I'm already amazed your head didn't explode from _thinking_," she stated, clearly losing patience with him. Not like it was hard to do in the first place. The mana disappeared around her hand, returning it to its fragile state.

With a short chuckle, Kevin hid the offense he had truly taken from that. "Well, it's snowing and I was wondering how a heist would go over if the roads were blocked and I had a snowmobile. And the power would have to be out across the city."

She only raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, so this would totally work," Kevin started, taking one hand off the wheel to gesture. "If I-" he pointed to himself, "-had a snowmobile, I would be able to rob a bank, no problem, no questions asked. Cars couldn't catch me. Roads are blocked. Video cameras would be powered down. And if I headed into the woods, the speed would cut off any footmen and I'd be gone in less than a heartbeat." He grinned, leaning back further into his seat.

Gwen was amazed he was capable of thinking that far. "Please don't tell me you've got a snowmobile," she groaned.

"The step does," Kevin pointed out. "I'm entirely willing to steal it from him just out of spite and crash it somewhere so he'll be pissed."

Of course. Gwen should've known. "Kevin, you've changed."

He sighed with a loving look buried deep in his dark obsidian eyes, saying, "Gwen, you know I wouldn't go back to that if Argit paid me to. I mean, unless he's got a pretty good amount on him. But I doubt that, and I'm not going to do that to you, okay? You have to trust me. Although, I might still smash the snowmobile."

"I'm fine with that," the redhead laughed, reaching over to twine her fingers with Kevin's, a soft smile playing across her lips. "Just don't hurt anyone."

His expression became thoughtful. "No promises," he mumbled and the car sped on.

_**~CUT TO FUTURE GWEVIN!~**_

Years later, Gwen found her fingers twined with his once more, the Plumber radio cranking out some mindless droning. Neither listened to it, but just absorbed the company of the other.

Then came out a few words from the normal police radio.

"_Yesterday,_" it started then paused for some static outburst. "_-a snowmobile stole the entire savings-_" It cut to static again, Gwen's eyes locked on Kevin's and he was entirely oblivious. She had remembered his plans over the time they'd spent together. "_-of a bank in Bellwood. The vehicle-_" It spluttered out again. "_-disappeared into the thick cover of trees by night. The roads were too-_" The voice cut out once more. Gwen was now glaring at Kevin. His eyes stared ahead, into the night that twinkling with winking stars. "_-blocked for any police to get there in time. No video was captured and it seems that the suspect has vanished._" Then the radio shut down altogether, the transmission ending.

The Plumber radio kept blanking in and out as the other did, but with entire intergalactic crimes, it was never quiet for very long. Neither was Gwen.

"Did you really, Kevin?! You told me you wouldn't do that!" She pulled her hand away from his, angered gaze falling out into the side roads that they passed through slowly, only at about seventy miles an hour due to the icy roads and snow that was falling around them. The girl debated punching his bicep so hard that he wouldn't be able to move his arm for a week.

He gave her a slightly questioning look. "What'd I do?"

She couldn't believe him. "You really went through with it! I cannot understand why in the world you'd do that!" The fury lit up her face a pale reddening color underneath her naturally pinkish pale flesh, heat attacking her cheeks like wolves.

"I'm serious, Gwen, I have no idea what you're talking about!" He hadn't done anything to piss her off lately. He hoped. And by the sounds of it, he hadn't forgotten her birthday or anything so obviously stupid. He was smarter than that. Again, he hoped. "What did I do?"

"You robbed that bank!"

"What bank are we talking about? And do you mean recently or before? There's nothing under the recently category and before, there's a pretty long list." By before, he meant before he had taken a different side of life, taking the role of a hero.

"KEVIN ETHAN LEVIN!"

"What?!" He wasn't sure whether to defend himself or to just agree with her to keep her happy. But he had a feeling she'd be annoyed either way.

"Did you rob that bank?!"

"No!"

"But the snowmobile plan you had a few years back, it sounded just like it!" Her eyes narrowed as her head whipped back to look at him. Her red hair was splayed across the leather, sticking to it with static. "I thought-"

Kevin laughed impossibly hard.

Gwen just sat there confused.

With tears in his eyes, Kevin looked over to Gwen and another round of hysterics came over him. He leaned forward, his head resting on the steering wheel. The pain in his chest came around whenever he laughed like that. It was like a burning sensation that lasted for hours later that felt like he'd been running for hours on end without water or even the slightest break in pace. "You're kidding, right?!"

When she shook her head, he howled with laughter again, drowning out both radios, which had started their incessant babbling static chatter again.

"What?!" Gwen finally asked.

He had to regain some thought to form a reasonable response. "Gwen…" he started, but then pursed his lips to quit from snickering. A smile was plastered to his face, irremovable.

She was losing patience. "Tell me!"

"Gwen, I destroyed any access I had to a snowmobile years ago!" He pulled his forehead from the steering wheel, a thick reddish mark where it had indented his skin. "I smashed it into a tree and then took a baseball bat to it and after that hooked up some tech and totally annihilated it _and_ the tree!" Kevin was enjoying the memories of it. "I wouldn't do that. And besides, it was just a thought. I wasn't actually going to go through with it!"

The girl felt very stupid for even accusing him of criminal activity again. He hadn't done anything illegal in months. "Sorry." Her voice sounded weak now in the newly founded silence of the car. Both radios had spluttered out into hushed static.

"I don't care, Gwen. It's just funny that you actually remembered it!" He gave another heartfelt chuckle. "God, that's hysterical."

"Glad you find my stupidity funny."

"Yes," he said with his cocky smirk. "Yes, I do." His rough, calloused hand closed around her fragile, soft one over the console as the snow drifted around the car once again.

* * *

**A/N: man, I loved this!!!! I **_**dream**_** of Kevin destroying snowmobiles!!!! R&R plz!!**

**~Sky**


	26. Tidbits 2

**A/N: okay, so it's been awhile since these were up… TIDBITS!!!**

**Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing and it pains me to say that…**

* * *

**K= Kevin (luv himm…)**

**G= Gwendolyn (.)**

**B= Benji!!!!**

**J= Julie (*rolls eyes*)**

**Tidbits 2!**

G- "Kevin, do you trust me with your life?"

K-"Only you would ask a question like that to a guy like me."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B-"Why does the world need squirrels?"

K- "Why does the world need you?"

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

*Gwen and Kevin are not currently in the car

J-"Why do you hang out with Gwen and Kevin?"

B- "Gwen's my cousin."

J-"And Kevin?"

B-"Well-"

K&G**- ***get into the car*

K-"Let's just say I could give him a pretty good heart attack and my car _does_ kill."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

G- "Kevin?"

K-"Yeah?"

G-"Do you care about me?"

K-"Depends on what we're talking about."

G-"Please tell me you did not just say that."

K-"Do you want me to be honest with you or not?"

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B-"I swear that Julie's cheating on me."

K-"Don't tell her that or else she'll slap you so hard you won't be able to think for a week." (pauses) "Not like you think in the first place."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K- "You will not _believe_ what Annie found online last night."

B&G- (quizzical looks at Kevin)

K- "There was a Paris Hilton quote and it was like, 'Wal-Mart, do they make walls there?'

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B- "Is this the Krusty Krab?"

G- "Isnt' that SpongeBob or some cartoon garbage?"

B- "No! It's Patrick."

K- "What's he talking about? Who's Patrick?"

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

G- "What's been up with you lately?"

K- "I stopped fighting with my inner demons. We're on the same side now."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

G- "Want to see a picture of pani puri?"

B- "And what is pani puri?"

G- "It's an Indian dish." (pulls out a picture and shows the boys)

K- "It looks like chicken nuggets."

B- "With green ketchup."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B- "What would you guys do if zombies were coming after us?'

G- "Run."

K- "Pick up Gwen, trip you, and run like crazy."

B- "Good plan. My brains should hold them off for a little while…" (pauses then realizes what Kevin just said) "HEY!"

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K- "I was at a mental hospital for a while. Did I ever tell you guys?"

G- "No…"

B- "Did you escape?"

K- "No. They gave me a _day pass._"

G- "You've obviously been gone longer than a day. How long's it going to take them to realize that?"

K- (shrugs)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

G- "Do you ever smile like nothing's wrong?"

K- "What's wrong?"

G- "What?"

K- "You're smiling."

G- "I was asking."

K- "And I was implying."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K- "Ben, your village called?"

B- "What village?"

K- "Well they said they wanted their idiot back…"

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B- "I can't wait to get a car."

K- "Me too."

B- "Why?"

K- "I want to see if you can go to McDonalds. They might ask you if you want a side of epic with that fail."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

J- "Ben?"

B- "Julie?"

J- "What?"

B- "What?"

J- "What was I going to ask?"

B- (shrugs) "I have no idea."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

G- (gets into car)

K- "Morning, sunshine."

G- "You say another word, I kill you."

K- (shuts up)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K- "I can speak two languages."

B&G- "You can?"

K- "English."

G- "And?"

K- "Sarcasm."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K- "Hey."

B- "Is for horses."

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

K- "I need to get another traffic ticket."

G- "Why?"

K- "I wanna beat my record. A couple thousand isn't enough. I mean, I want to be a legend in the world of speeding."

G- (shakes head and wonders what is wrong with him)

**GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN~GWEVIN**

B- "Okay, you guys want to know something?"

K- "If it's personal, I really don't care."

B- "It's not."

K- "Then sure."

B- "I drink smoothies to feel special and warm and fuzzy inside."

* * *

**A/N: I really have no idea what I was doing with these, but they were funny when I wrote them, but I don't think these were near as good as the first ones. Sorry, but I promise that I will get another chappie like 'Poison' and 'Breathe' up soon. Promise! But I been a bit busy, so cut me a break. plus, my iPod Touch doesn't allow me to write!!! Lol.**

**On my poll: it's a tie between "96 Moments of Kevin" and "Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda". Someone mind breaking that tie for me? Lol. Thankz! And review!**

**~Sky**


	27. Hammer

**A/N: alrite, these were behind. Again. Actually, it only got like 30 hits today and I flipped out so ignore my paranoiaaa.**

**Disclaimer: I. Am. Not. Man of Action.**

* * *

"Why do you need a hammer? Who needs a hammer to build a car?"

Kevin snatched the tool from Ben. "I don't know! I mean, what if I just want a hammer? Did you ever think of that?"

He mulled over the thought for a moment. His green eyes glazed over with concentration. "No, I didn't. But I still don't get why you need a hammer in here."

Obsidian eyes glazing over, Kevin's face flushed red with anger. His grip instantly tightened on the hammer. Dangerously tight. "Dude, just accept the fact that I have a hammer."

"I don't think I will." Ben sipped on his smoothie, slow and hard. His cheeks sucked in. Once his whole mouth was full, he shook his head like a dog.

"I really, really oughta hit you as hard as I can with this hammer and see if either A) you spit smoothie everywhere or B) your brain comes out the back of your head. Place your bet. Maybe I'll win some money off this."

He spit smoothie out everywhere.

"Yup. Fork over some cash."

"YOU DIDN'T EVEN HIT ME!"

Kevin tapped Ben's shoulder with the hammer. "Now I did."

"WE DIDN'T EVEN PLACE BETS!"

"Yeah I did."

"WHEN?!"

"In my mind."

"GIVE ME THE HAMMER!"

Eyes widening, Kevin dropped the hammer on Ben's foot and ran for the driver's side door of the car. He put it in gear and hoped Ben wouldn't actually come after him with a hammer.

Because hammers are much more dangerous than they look.

* * *

**A/N: hehehe. Review plz.**

**~Sky**


	28. Hit

**A/N: my review for 'Vendetta' is on my profile. Check it out! One sad thing though. My DVR didn't record the episode. So I sat in church for 6 hours this morning, waiting to get out so I could watch 'Vendetta' again. I flip on my tv, check this list of recorded stuff, select Alien Force and the only unwatched episode on there is 'Above and Beyond'. In other words, NO VENDETTA FOR SKYLARK!!! So incredibly pizzed rite nao. So I'm watching it on YouTube while I write. My favorite Devin line: "Well that's a whole lot of useless." The accent makes it funnier!!!**

**So since I'm in a bad mood, let's go with another darker argument. You all seem to like my overly dramatic ones where Kevin has a tendency to, oh I don't know, die!!! Here you go. 'Hit'**

**Disclaimer: Yes, yes I do own nothing. But Max has big eyebrows…**

* * *

Gwen pulled herself from the hole in the street that reeked of death and decay and sewer crap. Her ballet flats were soaked through and she was wet all the way up to her knees. The redhead was pretty sure there was more than just water in her shoes… At the thought, she shuddered before letting her feet hit the pavement as she ran for the green car with its black racing stripes.

Her cousin pulled himself out next while Kevin held off the few Forever Knights that still hung around in the drainage systems. Ben was laughing like crazy. He knew this wasn't hard to pull off. The odds of them winning were already in their favor. With only two or three knights left and the dark teen dealing with them, it shouldn't have been a problem.

"He good down there?" Gwen called back to the brunette boy. She did worry about Kevin even if he had some insanely protective powers. He was only human on the inside. She dropped into the passenger seat, checking the glove box for any tech that could help. Sadly, Kevin had just cleansed his entire car of tech. Didn't want another thing like the gauntlet incident to happen.

There was a shrug from Ben that she didn't see. "Should be. I left two Knights for him to finish off on his own." He was in the trunk, looking for extra change for a smoothie later. If he was lucky, he could come up with a few quarters. That was enough to pay for half the smoothie and the rest of it could come out of his own pocket.

The firing from some laser lances came up through the hole in the street. A strangled cry rang out, sounding a lot like Kevin.

Gwen's head shot up. "Kev?" she yelled, making sure he was alright. The girl didn't know if she was capable of going on without him. Ben had left him totally alone down there. And Kevin was afraid of alligators. That didn't make leaving him in the sewers any more comforting for her.

"I'm good!" they heard him shout back hoarsely as the clamor of Forever Knight armor clashed against something hard. Probably concrete. It sounded bad for the guy in the metal though. Most likely sent his head ringing. "Don't worry! Be up there in a sec!"

Gwen could only hope so. It was driving her crazy that this mission wasn't over yet. Kevin was still in danger. She loved the guy. To pieces. Why Ben didn't help him, she didn't know. He could've finished off the villains and then brought Kevin up with him, but no. Of course Ben wouldn't do that because Ben's a moron. The redhead's eyes locked on the manhole, hoping to see her boyfriend come out any second now.

"Oh yeah, take that, and that, and that because I am a total ninja!"

She found herself smiling because Kevin was actually enjoying himself. He was nowhere near ninja status though. He was loud about everything. Loud car. Talked loud. Walked around pretty loud. Ninja didn't get anywhere near the level that Kevin was at. He was so uncoordinated…

There was a loud-ish Kevin-like grunt and more slamming of metal. Hitting stuff was always the fun part. Being hit, not so much. "That was _not cool_." He obviously spent way too much time around Ben. There was a yell and some crushing of Forever Knight armor. Then a splash.

"Gwen, do you have a dollar?" Ben called from the back of the car where he was still searching the trunk. "I want to get a smoothie later when he finally decides to finish up down there. Kevin's taking a little long on this one." His fingers drummed along the hull of the trunk. Ben looked up to his cousin who was giving him one of the worst death glares of his entire fifteen-year-old life. He shut up real fast.

There was some silence for a long while. She started to worry. Not good. Kevin was hardly ever silent. "Yo, chicken liver, you comin' up from the pile of crap under there?"

The redhead found another good reason to smile. She should've known better than to assume he was just being quiet for once. And a zippy one liner was a good way to piss off some medieval morons. "Come on, Kevin! Let's get going!" She reached over and hit the horn a few times.

"Comin' comin'!" he called up in an almost natural way. "One more minute!" There was the crushing of metal and then something that sounded like a sword coming out of a sheathe, similar to the hissing of a snake. "Gwen, you sure there ain't any alligators down here?"

A girlish scream erupted from one of the Forever Knights and Kevin let out a series of loud chuckles. Metal clanged on more metal and then there was another small splash and footsteps running from the tunnels. More hysterics were released from Kevin as another girlish scream was emitted.

"Finished," came his voice once more. Gwen could pick up the slightest sound of feet against the cold ladder leading back to the street. He could be quiet on some occasions. At this point, she wanted him to be loud just for clarification that he was still alive. "Take a chill pill, Gwen." His hand appeared out of the manhole. "I'm still livin' and breathin'. No need for a freaking panic attack."

She let out a silent sigh of relief. He was still being an absolute maniac when it came to caring about his well-being. If someone cared, he obviously didn't care. A bad habit picked up from the streets of New York probably.

His head appeared, obsidian eyes shining with the enjoyment of smashing something for the day. Smashing. Breaking. Hurting. Pounding. It was all relatively the same thing, but he just liked destroying stuff. Kevin gave a little grin. "You guys good?"

"Got any cash?" Ben asked. His head came out of the trunk long enough to look at Kevin. "And can we go to Mr. Smoothy?"

There was the long howl of a horn in the distance from the street. Gwen's green eyes glittered, immediately snapping towards the direction of the sound. "Oh my god."

Kevin was still oblivious as always. He started to climb a little higher out of the hole in the street. Then his face twisted in panic. "Dang it, why did you decide to come back?" he snarled, looking back down into the sewers into the gray masked face of yet another Forever Knight. He kicked his foot, trying to shake the enemy.

Gwen still stared into the face of danger like a deer in headlights. "Kevin!" she yelled, hoping he'd forget the fight, just for a few moments. "Kevin, get up here!"

"Hold on!" he told her, raising his voice through clenched teeth. This was going to suck. Why did Ben ditch him again? And why the heck was Ben searching through his trunk? "Dude, let go of my ankle for crying out loud!" He landed a solid kick in the metal clad guy's face. His grip remained firm and a laser lance in his other hand only spelled trouble. With a capital T.

Ben looked up. "Need help?" he asked his friend, who seemed to be struggling. But only a bit.

"Kevin!" Gwen shrieked this time.

A huge semi-truck was coming down the street right for him. The headlights were bright as a neon sign in Vegas. And it didn't seem to be slowing down one bit. Kevin was trapped between two deaths. A laser lance or a massive truck which would probably mutilate his mutated body worse than a laser lance ever could.

The brunette boy only looked up. "What's going on?"

"Ben!" Gwen called, looking over at her shoulder to her cousin. "You've got to help Kevin!" Her eyes widened as she saw that the truck was getting closer. Her heart pounded and she tried to get back out of the car again. She wasn't going to make it. She couldn't block the truck. It'd injure the driver. She couldn't pull Kevin out. He'd never get out of the way in time.

"You Forever Knights have to be the most annoying group of guys we've ever had to fight," Kevin snarled. He got another square kick in the guy's face. "Please, please, please just friggin' LET GO!" He still didn't know of the looming danger just over the horizon of the road.

"He's not gonna make it!" cried the redhead. "Ben, he's not gonna make it!"

"What?" His green eyes pulled themselves away from the bottom of the trunk. He could hear the faint rumbles of the truck, but didn't put the pieces together yet. He was so confused until he saw that Kevin was still half in and half out of the sewer. "Kevin!"

"BUSY!" Kevin landed another blow, this time narrowly dodging a red hot shot from the laser lance. He could feel the metal mouth's grip slightly looser. But not enough to drag him out of the sewer without bringing a few chunks of armor and maybe a hand with him.

The horn blasted again. Louder. More urgent.

Gwen realized time was up. She should've grabbed him when she had the chance. Now it was over. The window of time had passed and Kevin was either going to be hit by a truck or fried by a lance. She found herself hating the Forever Knights so much.

"You know what? Screw this." Kevin dropped back down the manhole and morphed his hand into a silver sledgehammer and brought it down on the breastplate of his opponent's armor. "Finished yet?!"

This time, at last, the final Forever Knight released him, reeling at this final blow that seemed to break his ribcage. Then ran. His footsteps splashed through the tunnel as he disappeared.

Gwen thought it was over. The truck would pass right over the manhole, not even bothering Kevin in the slightest. That was the end. She was finally convinced that this was the way it was supposed to end.

Kevin popped his head back out into the darkness of night that was the above ground world. "Done," he announced as light washed over his head.

"KEVIN!" she screamed. This was the end. This was his end. That was it. Gwen's whole world was crashing down. She'd be living without Kevin for the rest of her life. It'd be awful. She'd suffer through this loss harder than any one before it.

Ben wasn't in any position to go hero in time. Not even XLR8 was fast enough for that. Not without being hit and killed. "GET DOWN!" he shouted, praying for a bit of help on this one.

He only turned his head and gave Ben a questioning look before feeling the initial impact. There was no time for panic or pain to register. Kevin was out cold within seconds, neck snapped easily. He was gone in less than a second, falling back down under the ground. A loud splash echoed through the tunnels as he sank to the bottom that was covered in grime and rust.

Gwen was crying, so depressed and scared that she could hardly breathe. She found her mind spinning on how many things she did wrong in those few moments that she should've saved him. She should've saved him, that was the bottom line.

Ben shouldn't have left him behind. No sacrifices, right? That was his rule. But he'd watched his own teammate die right in front of him while he stole coins from the trunk. He was robbing his friend as he died. Ben thought Kevin could take a couple of blockheads. It should've been simple. Somehow, it didn't work and he'd let Kevin die.

Wondering if she should dare to go check and see if by some miracle he was alive, Gwen buried her face in her sleeve. She was so afraid to go on without him. He was her rock, in more senses than one. She was totally in love with him. Now how was that going to go over if he was dead?

His courage growing, Ben decided to check. He had to know. It _was _his fault. He took a few steps towards the hole, peering down into the darkness.

Kevin was laying there, still, limp, unmoving. His eyes didn't even flutter as Ben called his name. He was broken and crumpled. His neck was obviously snapped. If the truck hadn't hit him, the fall would've killed him. His body was twisted at strange angles, legs shattered from crashing into the cold concrete.

"Ben?" came his cousin's strangled voice. Tears spilled over her green eyes.

He only turned slowly. No words were spoken. Instead, he walked over to the passenger side door, head hanging. He opened it and reached inside to hug Gwen. She needed him right now after watching that unfold. She'd just watched her boyfriend die in a horrific crash that both of them could've prevented. Ben tucked the redhead into his black shirt, holding her tightly. "I'm so sorry."

Tears only rolled down her face as she choked back sobs. "Kevin…"

"I know." He felt her bury her face in chest. "I should've saved him."

She was silent, fighting back this tortured pain that emanated from her soul. She'd lost the other half of her heart. Kevin was more of her than she'd ever thought. Gwen just wanted to kill the Forever Knight for stranding him between life and death for so long. She wanted to rip his head off and tie his limbs in knots.

"You want to cry yourself out?" asked Ben softly. He knew this was going to be a hard recovery. "Or I could take you home," he offered.

"I want to make sure." She carefully peeled herself away from her cousin and got herself out of the car. Gwen was shaky on her feet. She was tired and cold. The girl wasn't sure how much of this she could take. Her steps were soft and she hoped she wasn't going to topple over. Slowly, she lowered herself down into the manhole when she got to it. Her ballet flats nearly slipped from under her, but she hung on.

Ben only nodded, watching from the street above. "Be careful."

The redhead took one step into the muck at her feet. Kevin was practically drowning in it. Only his face was visible above the water level. "Hey," she murmured, knowing Ben was back at the car, calling Max. He understood that she needed some time. Gwen placed her hand on Kevin's cheek. "I don't know if you can hear me or not." Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. "I really don't think I ever got the chance to tell you a lot of things."

She had to take a deep breath. There were a _lot_ of things she wished she had told Kevin. "I'm terrified of spiders. I laugh at your jokes when you're not looking. I adore your laugh. I wish I'd heard it one last time. I like staring into your eyes and then thinking about how pretty the colors are later."

Gwen gulped in the dank, moist air. She couldn't believe this. He was really gone. "I love how dedicated you are to your mom. I like watching you work on your car even though you don't pay any attention to me." She moved her other hand down to touch where his heart should've been beating. It was still, no steady pulse radiating from it. "I know you don't like to admit it, but you are friends with Ben. He's going to miss you."

"Yeah," floated Ben's voice from the driver's seat of Kevin's car, his feet hanging out over the street. "It was an accident, Grandpa."

The girl couldn't believe this was real. She even pinched herself when she thought this wasn't even close to a nightmare. It was pretty close to most nightmares she'd had before. Kevin had died in a lot of them and they were all by freak accidents. But she didn't wake up. She wished she had though.

"I know I really liked you. I mean, when I touched you that first time back before the Highbreeds attacked, I thought it was just our powers connecting, but I don't think that anymore." Gwen wanted to cry herself out over the raven-haired boy she'd poured her love into for nearly a year now. She couldn't bring herself to do it over his dead body. "I know that I was in love with you, Kevin. I still am. I always will be. I know I love you to pieces. I wish I'd told you that before. Before now at least. I didn't expect anything like that to happen. I always thought it'd be better. You know I thought you'd go out with a bang. Overly dramatic and all, the way you are. I mean, were. But I always loved you."

Her tears spilled over again. She tried to wipe them away with her sleeve, but a hand caught her. A pair of obsidian eyes stared up at her, face twisting into a pained smirk. "Glad to know you care, Gwen." His hand wrapped itself around hers.

She pulled his torso a little further out of the green murky water and buried her face in his neck, giving him a soft kiss on his cheek. "You should've always known that." She felt more tears rolling their way down her face.

"Yo, Gwen, you can come up now. Grandpa's coming." Ben's green eyes peered down into the darkness of the hole.

"Hey, can you carry me or something?" asked the limp form in the water. "Can't feel my legs. Or my feet." He gave a little shrug and a choked laugh. His face became depressed. "Sorry for scaring you like that."

The redhead ran her fingers along his smooth neck. "I thought you were dead."

"Nope. Just really, really messed up." He tangled his hand in her fiery mane.

Conjuring a platform of mana, she moved it under Kevin and lifted him out of the sewer water. "But I think that's why my heart decided to love you."

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**A/N: man, I really thought I had the courage to kill him off this time. I was wrong. I was so very wrong. I still love him too much to kill him. SO CLOSE THOUGH! Leave a review if you liked it or hated it or so on and so forth. Btw, ALMOST 600 HITS TODAY! THANKS A TON!! LOVE U ALL SOOOOO MUCH!!!**

**~Sky**


	29. Drown

**A/N: had to hurry up and kick my writing up a notch for the day. This is called insanity. Im going to hate my vacation… so much inspiration, so little time to write it all out…**

**Okay, to be honest, I had this planned out before 'The Final Battle' so the whole drowning thing was actually in my head before that…**

**Disclaimer: why do I even write these things anymore???**

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They were going to die. They were all going to die.

"Kevin, why did you have to drive off the end of the pier?" Ben asked as the car sunk to the bottom of the watery wasteland.

All three of them were surrounded by green, polluted water. It was the prime example of littering and what it could do to some places. Each of their eyes could only see a few feet ahead before the murky waters just cut off all vision, only allowing them to see more green ahead. A watery wasteland was the perfect way to describe it.

"It was an accident, I swear!" he defended, holding his hands up, ready to surrender to her after the next attack.

The car gave a heart-stopping lurch as the tires slammed against the floor of the ocean. Each teen knew this was a bad sign.

"Definitely should've made it submersible," groaned the dark teen as he felt water seeping slowly through the windows. He was so close to having it perfect, but tiny droplets made their way through the edges in the glass that cut close to the frame. Tiny droplets that could slowly amount enough to flood the car. "Should've made it submersible," he repeated.

"Think anyone saw us?" Ben asked, looking up as if he could see through the roof. If a miracle occurred, someone had seen them and was calling the police for help. Again with the miracle part of it…

Gwen let out a sigh. The glass was cold against her fingers. It was icy because of the freezing water that pressed in. "Only a miracle." She curled her fingers up in a tight ball, nails digging into her palms. She was furious, but beating the crap out of the window wasn't going to help. "Only a miracle…"

There was a cold silence. Each was feeling their own emotions, all of them being relatively the same.

Kevin knew he should've done something to prevent this. He was the one driving. He was the one who could've gotten the car to float with enough work. The dark teen let his head fall against the top of the steering wheel, pressing deep into his forehead. It didn't hurt, but after a while, it began to. Regret. Remorse. Guilt. This was his fault and only his. He was the only one who could feel it, so deeply and painfully. It was like a thorn that someone had jabbed into his heart.

"I cannot believe we're going to die like this," Ben groaned, smacking his palm against his face. He was in shock mostly. He didn't want to believe it was real. Ben wanted this to be some kind of twisted dream that he'd wake up from just as they were all running out of air or something.

Gwen's hand kept pressed against the cold glass. "We're not going to die," she assured her cousin as another drip of water passed her fingertips. She knew this was real and this was how it was going to be, but there was no use drowning in the fact that this was how three of Earth's biggest heroes were going to die. She didn't want Kevin to be feeling guilty or pained by thinking he caused this and Ben's smart remarks probably weren't helping. So refusing the facts was the best way to go.

"It's my fault." Kevin knew it was true. Why deny it? "I drove us off the pier."

He was already guilty. Gwen was right. "No, it's not your fault. Don't say that." She slugged his arm good enough to leave a bruise he wouldn't forget any time soon.

"But it is," he argued, now leaning against the window on the driver's side instead of having his forehead against the wheel. "I drove us into the water."

"While we're slowly dying," Ben said, immediately getting daggers in the form of a glare from his cousin, "How about we tell each other some stuff? I mean, how bad can it be? I know Kevin's got a record that I'd like to know before I leave Earth."

"Not like you'll have a chance to ask me in Heaven," Kevin snorted. "I'm not even gonna be there with you guys." Having Gwen for eternity, on Earth or not, wasn't an option. He knew he was going down, not up. And it was going to suck. He'd miss seeing Ben's ugly mug each day and a strange smoothie obsession. And he'd miss Gwen, without a doubt.

Gwen wanted to smack him across the face. But she wouldn't. That would really hurt his feelings as if he wasn't already down in the dumps enough. "Fine, Ben. Tell us something." It couldn't hurt to just talk in their final hours, could it?

"Back when we were ten," Ben began, "I stole your laptop and broke it and then bought you a new one."

Alright, that backfired. "Benjamin, I already knew that," Gwen sighed.

His face fell. "Oh."

"When I was in the Null Void, I pretended that a rock was Ben's face and then pounded it into dust."

Both Tennyson's looked at Kevin, wondering and awed.

"Let's just say I had more than a few anger issues and fighting against the both of you didn't ever help it much." Kevin gave the slightest shrug. "Doesn't matter now. Not when we're all dying."

"Quit saying that," Gwen said fiercely.

"Well, it's true!" pointed out the dark teen.

"Just shut up!"

The car was silent as more water trickled in slowly and the air supply depleted. They had another hour at the most.

"Cell phone signal is down," Ben announced, shutting his phone and dropping it onto the car floor. "Since we're underwater, it doesn't really work too well to be honest."

Gwen rolled her eyes. She found it was probably her turn to say something. "Okay, when I was little, I used to have nightmares that Kevin was coming after me. He was still in his monster form and he always caught me and snapped my neck…" She found herself shivering as each vision replayed itself from before.

"How is that going to make this situation any better?" Kevin's head whipped up to look at her, eyes already full of grief that were coated over with another layer of the emotion. "Come on, I can still know that in Hell! I don't lose memories, Gwen!"

She never thought of that and immediately regretted saying anything.

Another silence followed.

"My turn again!" Ben announced, trying to stop the awkwardness. "I am part Swedish."

Kevin had to ask about this one. "Really?"

"Oh yeah!" Ben waved his hand in a 'Pshaw' motion. "Of course I am! I eat a ton of Swedish Fish. They're practically all I eat most of the time. Where do you guys think all my allowance goes?"

"Smoothies," both his cousin and Kevin replied at once.

He sank back into the seat, feeling very dejected. How could they think all his money went into smoothies?

"Hey, Gwen," Kevin started. He didn't want to die this way. "Maybe if you made a mana bubble, the air in it would be enough to float us back to the top."

"If we're surrounded by water, it'll be filled with water, not air. We wouldn't go anywhere. I'd just be wasting my powers on nothing." Gwen wished his idea would work, but it wouldn't. "I'm sorry."

"This is still my fault," he breathed. If knowing that Gwen had nightmares of him killing her didn't bother him enough in Hell, knowing that he really did kill her would haunt him for the rest of his miserable, useless life in a pit of fire. "I still let you die."

Her face burned. "If you keep saying that, I'll kill you so that Ben and I have more air. Would that make you happy?"

"Yeah."

She reached out and slapped him. "Never say that again. Never ever."

Kevin didn't know she held that kind of anger. His cheek stung where her palm had made contact and it felt like it was on fire because of the heat that spread there.

Ben's eyes got all wide. He had to change the topic before their little fight got worse. "Okay, Kevin's turn to say something."

"I'm afraid of alligators," he offered.

"We already knew that," Gwen hissed, keeping her emerald gaze cast out into the murky waters that surrounded the car.

"Gwen's turn," Ben said. They were still mad at each other, he could tell. The tension was almost tangible and electrifying. He was scared for his life as if he weren't already dying.

"I hate Kevin." Her statement was blunt.

"My turn!" announced the brunette boy in the backseat. This was growing hopeless with each turn. "I scream like a little girl whenever Sumo Slammers comes on. It's pretty sad…"

Kevin only rolled his eyes.

Gwen kept her gaze out the window.

"And next up is Kevin again!" Ben was still trying to keep the emotions of the car upbeat and lively. How could it hurt? They were all suffocating anyways.

"I'm in love with a red-haired beauty." His head went to rest upon the glass of the windows, still icy cold, still frozen. Water seeped down, causing his hair to be wet and turned it an almost darker shade of its raven color. Kevin knew they couldn't bother him about this one if he went somewhere else in the after-life. This was the end and he wanted to let them know the truth about things before the team was ripped apart forever, the cousins soaring while Kevin was engulfed in flames every waking moment of the day.

"I'm in love with a moron," Gwen said, knowing it was her turn. She wanted Kevin to know that she really did care even when he was being annoying and stupid and obnoxious. She loved his smile and his hair and the way he talked like he was some real bad boy in a gang or something. He had too many flaws to count, but each one only brought her in closer and left her wanting more of what she couldn't have. She loved the way his stupid jokes brought a smile to her face and the way he wouldn't let her ask him out and how he just did everything his way. "His name's Kevin and he thinks he's going to Hell."

His head didn't turn away from staring out at the green water.

"I know he's not because he saved Earth. But he thinks we're all dying so he thinks he's going to be punished. He's not because we'll drag him with us wherever we go."

Kevin's lips curled up in a smile.

Ben put his hands up to cover his eyes and squeezed them shut as tight as he could. "Okay, you two can kiss now. I'm not looking."

Peeling himself away from the window, he leaned over to Gwen. "Before we die?" he asked her softly, hand resting on hers.

The girl only nodded and leaned in to touch her lips to his just one time. Before they died, she wanted that special moment with him. Even if her cousin was sitting in the backseat.

She felt the skin touch and the electricity passed through her like a thousand volts of lightning. It was magic, she swore, no matter how much Kevin doubted the existence of such a thing. She wanted the rest of her life to be like this, sitting there. Leaning over to him. His lips against her, rough but comforting and passionate. She wanted to drown in him. Just everything she could think of was only Kevin and this kiss.

He loved the way a tiny moan escaped her. She was enjoying it and he liked pleasing her. Anything to make her happy in those final moments. He felt her tongue pass along his lower lip and he closed his hand tightly around hers. Kevin leaned his forehead to touch hers.

Ben was shuddering at the thoughts of his cousin and his ex-worst nightmare.

Gwen pulled away first, knowing that they both needed what precious little air was left in the car to breathe with and kissing was only going to leave them gasping for more of it. When it didn't come, it was over and done for. She took a breathe. Air still filled her lungs. "Thank you," she sighed to Kevin. Her nose brushed against his. "Thank you."

Her breath tickled his lips and he loved it. Kevin reached up and tangled his fingers in her hair, wanting nothing but more of the kiss that had made him feel so alive. "I'm sorry we can't have more of that," he murmured softly, tenderly.

"It's all I ever wanted." She moved her hands up and twined her fingers behind his neck. "I just wanted you."

Ben could still hear everything, the silence almost loud despite their non-subtle whispers of love. He only wished Julie were with him so he could tell her how sorry he was that they could never have a special kiss like that. For Gwen and Kevin, it was only natural. They were meant to be together for the rest of eternity. With him and Julie, it was a miracle they were still together. He still wanted to let her know everything he had forgotten to say up until that point.

"I love you, Gwen." Kevin's husky voice was breaking.

A small tear turned her eyes into truly glistening emeralds. "I love you too, Kevin." Her chest ached as the air turned sour as she drank it in.

"Guys," Ben said, finding himself nearly choking.

"It's the end," Kevin said with a cough. He kept breathing whether he liked it or not. He wanted a miracle to occur and save them.

Gwen felt her lungs ablaze. It hurt without enough oxygen to keep her going.

Kevin gave another tiny cough. "I'm sorry. It's my fault."

She wanted to hit him, but she couldn't get her hand to move. She was so weak and so tired and cold. Water still seeped in through those tiny holes in the glass.

"I'm going to try something," Ben said with his final breath. "Hold in as much air as you can."

They both did.

Ben found barely enough energy to slam his hand down on the face of the Omnitrix and howl "JETRAY!" before grabbing Kevin and Gwen's shirts and blasting his way through the windshield. Glass shattered silently, the car instantly filling up with water.

He kicked the alien's speed to the highest possible level and broke through the surface of the water. Ben soared upward a few more yards before returning to the pier that they had driven off of. He placed his cousin and her boyfriend onto the wooden planks before changing back to his human form, still dripping wet.

Kevin's chest rose and fell as his body came to life, spluttering for air. He spat the water onto the dock beside him, coughs racking his whole body. He pressed himself off the ground and looked up at Ben who's lips were moving, but no sound could be heard.

The redhead was still.

The raven-haired teen looked over to her, finding her unmoving and deathly white. "NO!" he cried, his own voice not even heard by his ears.

Ben was watching his cousin, eyes saddened. "Kevin," he began, but the sixteen-year-old didn't even show any signs of hearing him. "Kevin, come on, let it go."

He didn't. He took her hand in his and rubbed it to get the blood flowing through her again. "Gwen! Gwen, it's me! Come on, you're fine! You're fine!" Kevin's strength was charged up now. "GWEN!"

Yet she didn't move.

Grabbing her shoulders and pulling her into his chest, Kevin held her like that for a long while, sad that he'd lost the one thing he'd ever loved. He'd given her everything he had. He'd given her his first kiss and she had been his first love. Now he would never have another kiss like that. He would never find a girl that could make his mouth feel electrified and have his emotions let loose like that, so scared for rejection but so desperately wanting more of that love that he'd felt.

"Kevin," Ben repeated. "Kevin, let go." He put his hand on Kevin's shoulder.

The raven-haired teen held her into his black shirt. He wanted her heart to be beating beneath her ivory skin and for blush to rise in her cheeks.

There was a cough. Then fluttering green eyes. Some gagging came out of the girl as she vomited water all over the wooden boards, but Kevin still wouldn't let go as tears filled his eyes and he pressed his lips into her hair, never letting go. He would never let go. Not as long as there was a sliver of hope.

Ben just sighed relief. "Kevin, let go. She needs to breathe."

There was no response from him. He only held her tightly.

Gwen was ghostly pale. She buried her face in Kevin's chest. "Ben, he can't hear you," the redhead said as soon as she could catch her breath again. "The speed you went up at blew out his eardrums."

"He's deaf?" Ben asked.

She only shrugged as her boyfriend cried into her. "He could be. I'm not sure if it's permanent or not." Gwen's arms laced around Kevin's neck. "I'll break it to him later."

With a nod, her cousin started off towards the city of Bellwood once again.

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**A/N: No, Kevin's not deaf. He's just blocking out Ben cuz he's pizzed. So anyways, this is my last fic before I leave. I'll miss you all! Keep reviewing while I'm gone. I read them all, but I'll get to them as soon as I get back which should be… the Tuesday after this Tuesday or something like that. Bye everyone!!**

**~Sky**

**P.S. i know what your thinking. don't ask why Ben didn't think of the Omnitrix before. it would've ruined the fic. lol.**


	30. Part 2 of Our Car is Dead!

**A/N: slow on these, I know, but I wanted this to be really, really good!!**

**MUST READ PART ONE FIRST OR ELSE THIS WILL MAKE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE!!!**

**Disclaimer: Christian is mine.**

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**PART TWO OF ****'Our Car Is Dead!'**

Kevin stared at them. Did they not realize he and Gwen were just on the other side of the one building that was standing adjacent to the parking lot? "What do you think they're doing?" he asked the redhead who was leaning against the car beside him. "Has Ben officially lost it?"

"Probably?" Gwen offered, blinking a few times. She watched as her cousin and his friend tried to start up the car for about the thirtieth time in the past twelve minutes. "What did you do to their car, Kev?"

"For once, I'm being totally honest this time, absolutely nothing."

She stared at him for a few moments as he sipped innocently on his soda. She'd been with him the whole time. So she didn't argue. Gwen believed him. "You know what's wrong with it?"

"Hazard lights were on the whole time. Battery's dead." His expression twisted back to being stoic. "I wonder if they're going to try and figure out how to fix it…"

The two watched both boys as they tried to restart the nearly all black car twelve more times. Then Christian started yelling. He was loud and obnoxious. It was no wonder that he and Ben were friends.

"That poor car," Kevin muttered. His lips found the straw of his soda. He sucked on it a little.

Gwen wondered why he was so compassionate to the vehicle that Ben had murdered and yet showed nothing towards her most of the time. "What the…" Gwen let the question hand in the air as she watched Ben and Christian dance around like crazy. They were shaking their butts everywhere and screaming like maniacs. "Lost their minds, haven't they?"

"They have," Kevin agreed, staring at them aimlessly.

Ben and Christian screamed so much and then began to dance some more. "OUR CAR IS DEAD! OUR CAR IS DEAD! OUR CAR IS DEAD!"

The two could hear bits and pieces of their yelling. "I wonder how long it's going to take before my badge rings…" Kevin pulled the Plumber tech out of his back pocket and placed it on the hood of the car before returning his gaze to the two acclaimed psychopaths that danced in the middle of the almost abandoned parking lot.

Two hours later the redhead and the raven-haired teen still stood there. He had finished off his soda a while ago and was now just watching the two crazies fall to the ground in exhaustion. A snorting laugh escaped him. "Gwen, they finally stopped," he called softly, trying not to alert the idiots of them being just a few short yards away. That would make them stop and find them and then… yeah, it wouldn't be fun anymore. "Gwen," he called again.

She got out of the car. Spending time with Kevin was everything she dreamed about. Until they spent hours watching Ben and Chris singing and dancing about how their car had died. _For two hours_. Gwen looked at them.

Ben's hair was splayed out across the blacktopped parking lot. His green jacket had dark pit stains on it and he was breathing heavily. His green eyes were shut and his chest rose and fell erratically as he tried to catch his breath from all the dancing and screaming. Arms reaching up to the clouds, he pointed at something and was saying words that not even the wind could carry far enough for Kevin and Gwen to hear.

Chris was a different story. His sand colored blonde moppy cut was much longer than Ben's hair, but easily shorter than Kevin and curled outward at the end. He had really light hazel eyes the fluttered open and then shut again when he realized that there was actually light radiating from the sun. His arms and were stretched out so that he looked like he was making snow angels. Without the snow. Freckles dotted his cheeks and nose. He replied to Ben.

This lead into another argument of yelling.

"Did he say chameleon?" asked Kevin, his gaze meeting Gwen's.

Ben slapped Christian.

"Alright, now this is getting interesting…" he chuckled softly.

"I WANNA GO HOME!" they heard their little brunette yell.

"ME TOO!" came Christian's voice.

"Losers," Kevin laughed.

Gwen slugged his shoulder.

"Ow," he mumbled before resigning into silence again as they watched Ben and Chris's lips move but the words were inaudible.

A few minutes later…

"OOOO, BUT IT'S PRETTY UNDER HERE! LOTZA FANCY LOOKIN' WIRES AND STUFFS!"

"Really?" asked Kevin. "Really?" His arms were folded neatly across his chest. "Neither of these morons know a thing about cars?"

"Apparently not," giggled Gwen.

Ben closed the hood on Christian's head, and the sandy blonde-headed boy started laughing uncontrollably. "COME ON! WE GOTTA GET HOME BEFORE I MISS MY CURFEW AND KEVIN COMES TO KILL ME IN MY SLEEP!" yelled Ben.

"True dat," Kevin snickered.

Gwen punched him again.

"Jeez, Gwen, could you cut that out?!"

"No."

"Why?"

"I don't want to."

"Fair enough."

The next thing they heard a few minutes later was "HIDE THE BODY!" from Christian.

"WHAT?!" Kevin nearly hollered, almost giving away their position from hiding on the other side of the building.

"Oh please tell me their not doing what I think their doing," Gwen prayed as Christian put all his weight, a hundred and five pounds or so (the guy was scrawny), on the trunk of the car. Then Ben joined him.

"No… Way…" breathed Kevin as he watched that car rolled forward inch by inch by inch by inch…

Then over the cliff it went.

Kevin's jaw dropped. It probably would've become dislocated and fallen all the way to the floor if that was even possible.

Gwen's green eyes got wider. Then she had to fight off the giggles.

They watched Chris run around in circles for a few minutes screaming, "THE BODY HAS BEEN HIDDEN! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Please tell me it's in one piece, please tell me it's not totally destroyed, please don't let it be totally destroyed," begged Kevin after he had fallen to his knees and now laid on the ground, arms in front of him. "I don't want it to be dead."

The highlight of Gwen's day: being able to look at Kevin lying on the ground like that for a few minutes. He looked cute when he was sad.

* * *

**A/N: I LOVED THIS!!!! IT'S LIKE COMMENTARY, BUT NOT!! R&R please!**

**~Sky**


	31. Guess What!

**A/N: current random discussion between my parents and sister!!**

**Disclaimer: none!**

* * *

Ben stared straight at Kevin.

Kevin stared straight at Ben.

It wasn't a staring contest. Sadly. Kevin would've won easily.

"Guess what happened on the side of the forest preserve we went to on a field trip again!" Ben started, his face immediately becoming overcome with ecstasy.

"A deer came out and ate a kid."

"Kevin, why would you ever guess that?"

He shrugged. "You told me to guess."

"Guess again."

"A beaver came out and beat a kid with its tail and then ate their foot."

"No!"

"Well, it _is_ possible, Benji!"

The brunette rolled his eyes. "No, it's not. Why would a beaver eat a kid's foot?"

"Did a goose come out and lay an egg?"

"No."

"A brown egg?"

"No, Kevin."

"An oblong, brown egg?"

"What the heck does oblong mean?!"

"I dunno, but it sounds all fancy like!"

"Of course it does…" Ben sighed.

"Okay, so what happened?" Kevin asked, pretending to seem interested now that the best of the discussion was over.

"Orange juice."

"I'm confused." The dark teen scratched his head.

"Then be confused, Kevin."

"I hate you."

Ben laughed. "Get used to it."

"Did Chris eat someone?"

Ben fell onto the floor of the car, laughing hysterically.

* * *

**A/N: I had to write this down super fast before they all shut up and my daddy's fone rang. *Sighs* Phew. Glad I got that down… review it!**

**~Sky**


	32. Race

**A/N: okay, I'm going to have to put almost all my stuff on Hiatus until I get at least one of the two one-shots done that I've got planned. I have two I want done. I want them done so very badly that I can taste it. So now I'm going to post this, but afterwards, I need to get to work on 'Lightning' and 'Rain' and some NCIS stuff. Sorry everyone. But they shouldn't take too awfully long. Be glad for that. Maybe a day to four days at the most. Give or take.**

**Disclaimer: Man Of Action is the most epic creator of all tv shows EVER!!! I thank him for the day he imagined Ben 10…**

* * *

"You know what?" snarled Kevin. His eyes were alight with a dark inferno of rage. "You can't say that your car is better than mine!" Besides the fury that boiled in his chest, he was angry above and beyond all else.

"Why the heck not?!" Ben came back with. "My car _is_ better! And newer! And perfectly more beautiful in every single possible freaking way!" He poked Kevin's chest nice and hard. This was going to be fun. For once, he had a car. He had a reason to be better than Kevin for the first time in a long time. The brunette challenged Kevin with a sneering smirk.

Gwen only shook her head. "Guys, are you really going to fight about useless stuff like this when-"

"YOU WANNA GO?!" Kevin yelled, putting his hand on the hood of his own car. The green metal climbed up his skin like ivy up a brick wall to grow closer to the sun. Suddenly his metallic armor made his entire body glint from the moonlight that washed over the two of them and Gwen, the Mr. Smoothy parking lot empty, it being the middle of the night and all. "I WILL KNOCK YOUR BLOCK OFF, JUST SAY THE WORD, TENNYSON!"

Ben poised his hand over the Ultimatrix. It glowed ominously in the fading darkness. "Maybe I want to fight you. Maybe I don't."

Kevin's lip curled up and a growl was released from his throat. "Tennyson, don't make me kill you…" he warned.

"Kevin, if you kill him, keep in mind that I will be very, very upset with you," the redhead reminded her boyfriend. She gave him her signature warning glare, emerald eyes cautioning him to cut it out before someone was seriously hurt. Her hand closed around his cold, hard shoulder.

He was quiet for a few seconds. "Let's go." Kevin let the metal melt around him. "Come on. Get in your stupid car and let's get going." He moved back towards the driver side door of his own car and slid into the cool leather seat. "Gwen, build a sort of raceway like thing for us."

She raised an eyebrow.

"You don't want me to fight him and I need to prove a point somehow so make mana into a whole bunch of walls so that we can drive without hurting some random hobo walking down the street or somethin' stupid like that."

Somehow, her boyfriend's logic made sense. In a moronic way, of course. "Fine, but if you guys break anything, I-"

Kevin's car door had already slammed shut and Ben was honking his horn impatiently, ready to get moving and kick some Kevin Levin butt.

Gwen came to the conclusion that all boys were idiots. She spread her pink power across a couple of blocks while both boys revved the engines threateningly at each other. Yes, a couple of idiots indeed. "Don't break anything, follow the path, and GO!" she called out, loud enough for both to hear her through the glass of the windows and windshields.

Each car blasted forward at a surprising rate, Ben's slower than Kevin's only by nanoseconds. The force projecting them forward was sheer speed from the engines of each vehicle.

The girl only hoped that no hobos were within the walls of her mana or else they would be crushed to bits by those cars.

The first corner was a breeze for Kevin, used to his car as if it were his third hand. The agility of the car was nothing in comparison to the power of the engine and the lithe turns it cornered without any struggle from the driver. That wheel had become an extension of his own body along with the armor he usually wore.

Ben had to grip the wheel harder and cut the corner, the tail end of his car drifting out to hit the wall of mana for only a second before he was able to regain the sense of control he had with the rubber tires on black pavement.

His green eyes bolted forward again to check Kevin's progress to find that his friend was already gone. He flipped open a tiny box on the control panel that the dark teen had installed for him and pressed the smallest button he could find. The bigger buttons always meant bigger stuff. Ben wanted to win a race, not blow up the central city part of Bellwood. That would definitely suck if he did that. The threat rating from the tv would skyrocket.

Long gone, Kevin flipped open his own panel and set down an oil slick for Benji. Why not cheat to win what he deserved? He built the newer car from scratch. Of course, it couldn't compare anywhere close to the level that his own ride was at.

The sleek black car spun rapidly and Ben let out a slight girlish shriek as he blasted through the wall of mana and nearly crashed into the central bank of Bellwood. He really didn't want the threat rating to go up. And this was already pressing the menace rates… The brunette boy slowed himself down pretty easily with the help of some heavy duty emergency brakes before letting the car hit full speed again and launching in the direction of the mana field again.

This race wasn't over yet.

Kevin let his hand guide the wheel to the left so that his ride rounded the corner nice and tight, the aspect of winning this thing clear and simple, nothing stopping him now. Gaze flicking to the rearview mirror, he suddenly regretted putting an extra turbo booster in the engine, just beneath the jumper cable station.

His car was dang fast, Ben knew that, but this speed had to be something that was serious. He was practically flying down the street, clearly breaking enough speed limits to land him in prison for a year or two. Well, not prison. Just a juvenile detention center. But close enough.

The dark teen didn't flinch as he passed the cop car sitting on the side of the road. The worst part was, he didn't realize it was inside the raceway that they were driving inside of.

The sirens were loud and quick to catch up behind him, right on his tail.

Kevin knew he would either have to bail or win it with a cop hot on his tail. The worst he could get was juvie for a few months. Eighteen wasn't too far away. The dark teen floored the gas, not wanting to give up what should've been an easy win. If only he hadn't have made Ben's car so wicked fast!

A smirk crawled across Ben's face. Another speeding ticket was exactly what Kevin needed. The brunette would have to call the people at the world record books so that they could see how many speeding tickets Kevin actually had. It had to be _some_ kind of record.

Until he noticed that Kevin wasn't about to slow down. He had bulleted through another turn without the slightest hesitation or any attempt at slowing down.

Giving up wasn't an option. Kevin flipped on the radio to blare some scream-o garbage through the stereo system. He still hated the sound of sirens and cops cars. One calloused finger slid along the control panel until he found the button he was looking for, eyes still glued to the road. He knew every inch of his precious car just by touch. It was pressed and he felt the wheels grow large beneath the vehicle and the ground became further away as he rounded yet another corner through Gwen's endless maze of mana in his now morphed monster truck of a car.

"Bask in the glory, Benjamin Tennyson," he mused, eyes narrowed towards finding the end of this madness.

Ben urged the car forward faster and faster until he saw Kevin's car grow at least three times in size and become practically indestructible through shielding and massive wheels and axels growing rapidly to create drastic changes to the vehicle. And his jaw just dropped like a ton of bricks.

Kevin caught sight of Ben's expression through the rearview mirror. And he loved just shoving his magnificence all in the younger teen's face. So he gave a little laugh and urged his car forward yet again, the pedal pressed as far as it would go to the floor.

Finding himself directly behind the police car, Ben began to panic. Would he get a speeding ticket too even if the cops were after Kevin? He _was_ speeding, no doubt about it. "Crap," hissed the brunette and he stayed right on target, pulling around the smaller automobile and propelling himself right up next to Kevin's monster truck thing. Then he flicked a button and the jets on the back through him right through another shield of mana as Kevin rounded a corner, clearly laughing his butt off at Ben being an idiot.

He already knew how to win. Kevin smirked. Races weren't about speed. They were about knowing when to use the speed you were given. So Benji was screwed, no questions asked.

Ben grabbed the wheel tighter and yanked it to stop from crashing into a huge apartment building. Why had he agreed to this? The car kept racing forward, the jets not slowing down any time soon.

And the dark teen was definitely laughing his butt off. It was too funny to see Ben flying around in his tiny car with no handling or control of any sort. Kevin's car was built perfectly to his specific needs of extreme handling, control, speed, agility, drift and power. The engine was wicked strong with a whole lot of horses under the hood. There was no question why he kept his car in such great condition. There was always a reason he fixed it on a regular basis. This had to be one of the best street races he'd ever been in.

Mr. Smoothy had to be only a short distance away by now, Ben assumed, throwing the car into another gear to slow it down by just a few miles so he could gain the control he needed again before charging back towards the wall of mana and crashing right through it, this time in front of Kevin.

The dark teen had no problem. He knew that Benji would want to win by a landslide and that the jets would fire up any moment now and he would fly through the walls of pink again and nearly destroy something else. Kevin was not worried in the least.

Being right as he usually was, the jet engines fired up again and Ben shot forward, this time hitting the wall of mana and bouncing off, skidding right in Kevin's way.

The wheels hovered right over the black and green car before landing right back on the other side, still pulsing forward directly into the parking lot of Mr. Smoothy. Victory was seized. Kevin pumped one fist into the air as he spun the car into a parking space right next to Gwen.

Ben, on the other hand, had to deal with the cop for twenty more minutes before coming into the parking lot, the paint job on his new ride destroyed from hitting his cousin's raceway a few too many times. "Hate you, Kevin," he growled after he had angrily slammed the car door shut and thrown the speeding ticket into his glove compartment.

"See, Gwen? I told you that we should've just fought it out," chuckled Kevin, just wanting to prove a point.

* * *

**A/N: okay, now I'm off to get some writing done on my one-shots (will be done soon, hopefully) and then get to work on a new story that plum-dulce and I came up with randomly while PMing each other. Leave a review! Love you all!**

**~Sky**


	33. New Kid

**A/N: gah! Had to write super fast! Sorry I've been offline, everyone. Grandparents are here and when they're here, it's constantly either a card game or an extremely long story about someone I don't know.**

**Disclaimer: don't own.**

* * *

Gwen clamored into the car, her backpack dropped onto the floor of the car. "Hey, Kevin," she murmured, leaning over and kissing her boyfriend first thing before even thinking about asking him anything. No one was stupid enough to ask Kevin a favor unless they had already sucked up to him. Even if Gwen had her own secret weapon, she wasn't about to use it too awfully much.

He just wove his arm around her slender waist. "Gwen," he breathed, kissing her right back.

"Can you do me a favor?" the redhead asked, voice soft. "Please."

"Mhm." He was too entranced with her to even notice what she was saying. But when "please" was added to anything, Kevin knew better to even attempt at arguing with Gwen. She always found a way to win.

"Can you give my friend a ride home too?"

This got Kevin to slow down for a few seconds and actually ask himself what she was asking. The words that had slipped from her lips finally connected to create some sense within his mind. "A friend?"

"He's a new kid and I offered to show him around Bellwood and I thought you could drive us around and stuff." She ran a finger along his cheek, tracing his jaw line. "Please, Kevin? It'll be good for my karma points. And yours too."

"You think there's something wrong with my karma?" Kevin asked, giving her his reproachful glare with those deep obsidian eyes of his.

She remained silent for a few seconds, regretting her words. Instead of saying something stupid, she just added another "Please" into the mix, hoping for the best. Yes, Kevin could say no to her if he wanted to, but chances were good that he wouldn't. He loved her too much to say no sometimes.

He let out a snarl that sounded something like, "Fine." Kevin didn't have to agree, but he did. And he still didn't have to like it either.

"Thanks, Kev," she said quickly, planting one more kiss on his rough lips before reopening the door to the car and jumping out really fast and running into the building once more. It was quiet then, Kevin left wondering whether he had said the right thing or not.

Sadly, Gwen had already mentioned his karma and he knew it was _waaaayyyy_ down in the dumps. So why not, right?

The door opened again and a freshman stepped into the car, climbing into the backseat where Ben usually stayed with his smoothies. Good thing Ben had soccer practice or a game or something after school or this newbie would have company in the backseat. And he was definitely lucky that Ben wasn't here. Or else Ben would've been his instant best friend in the history of the entire world. That was just Ben…

The newcomer had skin as black as night and eyes that seemed to glint with flecks of gold within the amber depths of his eyes. A camouflage shirt with too much brown and too dark of green just showed off his bad taste in clothing, but it definitely made a statement. Thin-rimmed wire glasses sat perched on his nose. A strange one, he was.

"Kevin, this is Jaylon. He's the new kid at my prep school." Gwen had fluttered her way delicately back into the passenger seat of the car, pulling the seat belt over her shoulder and around her waist. "Jaylon, meet Kevin." She flipped her hair back into place before looking back at this newcomer, emerald eyes glittering like exactly that: emeralds.

He hardly looked back for more than a second and then just checked that Gwen had closed the door before gunning the engine to get the heck away from that school.

"Keep in mind that Kevin isn't a people person," Gwen noted, giving Kevin enough of a glare to leave him stung for a few moments before it passed, knowing he'd been hurt worse before. He kept his own gaze ahead on the road, not letting it waver from the white and yellow lines that darted past.

And the kid in the backseat just nodded at this. Kevin wasn't sure if he was mute or not, but he sure as heck didn't talk a whole dang lot.

"Want to see Mr. Smoothy first?" Gwen asked, looking back at Jaylon. She already knew Kevin was upset with her on the inside. Yet he had the strength to keep in inside and to not complain about every single little insignificant factor that struck up his annoyance.

Grunting, Kevin pulsed the engine faster. If he could scare the kid from the car, his problems were over. Less to worry about. Life would be good again and there would be no random stranger in the backseat of his beloved car.

"Don't be so pissy," instructed the redhead, really hoping her boyfriend would show some hospitality for once. And even if he did, his hospitality was bound to be something so very strange that it would scare off Jaylon. Poor innocent kid already a victim of Kevin's annoying wrath of silence and stubbornness. For some reason, Gwen loved Kevin's wrath. No matter how strange it was.

He didn't reply or even think about replying. His silence lingered as those deep earthen and black eyes searched the rearview mirror for other cars, his blind spots no longer blind courtesy of him being an excellent mechanic and all that. He wasn't sure how it worked, but it just did.

"Mr. Smoothy is this little crappy shack in the middle of central Bellwood where pretty much everyone gathers to buy smoothies at random intervals throughout the day. My cousin is a prime example, but he's not here right now. I'll call him later so he can meet up with us."

"More like so I can pick him up," snarled a very irritated Kevin. He wasn't a chauffer. He wasn't some pet. He was actually a person who happened to have a very nice car that everyone loved to ride in so much that they pretty much called him their chauffer. So why must he keep on being called to drive them around? Being sixteen did have the suckiest of all downfalls…

Gwen wasn't about to let her boyfriend be an annoying street rat again. "Ben's an idiot, yes, but he's still my cousin." She slugged Kevin's shoulder lightly.

"I hate your cousin."

"Most of the time," Gwen corrected.

She wasn't really correcting him. Kevin fell back into his silence, not a happy camper. As a matter of fact, he didn't even really like camping. Too many bad experiences.

The car skidded into the blacktopped space, pulling into the abandoned part of the parking lot so that no morons could hit the car by opening a door or anything. It had a new paint job and he didn't want that ruined so soon…

"Come on." Pulling herself out of the car, Gwen opened the door and Jaylon climbed out after her.

Kevin was left alone to ponder his stupid luck in getting a life where his girlfriend just had to be one of the nicest freaking people in the entire town of freaking Bellwood.

He was only alone for a few minutes before a beeping started up. Loud, shrill and annoying didn't even begin to describe how incredibly irritated it made him. Kevin's hand pressed down on the miscellaneous buttons around the car until it shut off. Then he rolled down the tinted black windows. "Paging Gwendolyn Tennyson," he called out into the parking lot, waiting for the word to spread to her which only took a few seconds amongst a huge pack of hyper teenagers on a Friday night with smoothies that are chock full of sugar.

The girl's fiery mane stood out in the crowd as she made her way back to the car, Jaylon right behind her. She glared at him for a few seconds before actually approaching the car. "Please don't tell me you just want to keep moving with the tour."

"Ha ha," Kevin said, the sarcasm oozing in his voice. "Actually, no. We have a slight toilet problem in the desert."

She stared at him, a bit of a twisted and confused smile on her face until the two pieces in her mind clicked and the puzzle fit together. "Ah."

Jaylon was giving Kevin a questioning look as if asking "Toilets in the desert?"

"I'm sorry, Jaylon, but we've got to go help out… the people in the desert with their… toilet problem…" She gave Kevin a glare to ask him where in the world he came up with toilets in the desert. Who would have a toilet in the middle of a freaking desert?!

Kevin cut in. "And if you have no experience with aliens, I very much suggest you stay here."

He backed away from the car.

"Suit yourself," Kevin said with a slight laugh on the end and his shoulders giving a small shrug before the window was rolled back up with Gwen sitting in the passenger seat beside him.

"I hate being a Plumber," sighed Gwen, sinking into the cold leather that pressed against her porcelain skin. "I hate having to miss out on normal things."

Kevin's only response was "I don't."

* * *

**A/N: not my best, but I just wanted to do a quick tribute to this new kid in my skool. He's a strange boy… but pretty cool in general.**

**~Sky**


	34. Slander

**A/N: dad turned on some movie. Just thought this would be absolutely hysterical.**

**Disclaimer: main point of this was used in a John Wayne movie. Dunno which one, but it was!**

* * *

"Ben, Kevin just slandered my honor!" she stormed into the garage, her boyfriend hot on her tail. Of course, Gwen was furious, her face red with anger.

Ben's face twisted in confusion. "And slander means…?"

Gwen should've known better than to use a big word with Ben and Kevin present. The chances of them understanding or knowing it were slim to none. "It means disgrace in more basic terms."

"Kevin disgraced your honor?" asked Ben, raising an eyebrow in the direction of Kevin.

And the dark teen just leaned against his car, arms folded across his chest so that the muscles bulged out from beneath the threads of his shirt. "Yes, apparently I slandered her honor."

"Slandered it!" Gwen repeated, mad and just enforcing it.

"Uh-huh," muttered Ben, just sipping on his smoothie. "And you want me to…?"

"Kick his butt or something!"

"…no thanks?" offered Ben. He didn't want to really kick Kevin's butt. Yes, it was tempting, but then he wouldn't have a ride if his car broke down. Or if his tires were slashed…

"Ben!" Gwen's voice had taken a whining tone.

"I really don't want to kick Kevin's butt…" Ben looked at his cousin questioningly. "Really, what did he do?"

"SLANDERED MY HONOR! HAVE YOU NOT BEEN LISTENING?!"

"I have, but I just don't understand why you want me to kick Kevin's butt."

"SLANDERED MY HONOR!"

"Still not understanding, Gwen."

Then it was time for Kevin to cut back in. "Ben, can I just spank her or something?"

Gwen's emerald eyes grew at least twice their size as horror struck her face. "Oh God, Kevin please tell me this is some kind of sick joke. Please tell me you're kidding!"

"Um… no." His obsidian gaze was dead serious as it locked onto hers.

"Ben, don't you dare let him-" She realized her cousin was already looking at Kevin with a bit of a smile playing across his face as his lips curled around the straw of the smoothie so that he didn't have to reply. "Ben, if you even think about it, I'll… I'll kick your butt!"

Ben stayed silent for a few moments. "I highly doubt that."

Kevin suddenly smiled his natural devilish smile and shifted his weight from the car so that he was standing upright, stance confident. "So I'm not getting a fight?"

"I really don't want to fight him," Gwen admitted, trying to hide behind her cousin. Ben wouldn't move to protect the redhead. He just stood there while she tried to move one of his arms to guard her face with it. That really didn't work the way she had hoped it would. "Please don't let him, Ben. Don't make me beg. Please don't make me beg."

And the brunette boy just shrugged. "You came in here yelling and disturbed my peace so I'm just gonna keep standing here. You're on your own."

Her green eyes widened. "Oh. My. God." Doomed wasn't even the right word. She didn't want to be doomed. She didn't want Kevin to- Gwen ran for the garage door, only to find her path blocked by a huge wall of cement.

She turned back around to find up to Kevin's biceps covered in thick layer of cement armor and his hands plastered to the floor. "Don't even try to get away that easily, Gwendolyn."

Ben could only think of how funny this would be to watch.

"Kevin, please don't. Please please please don't!" She backed herself up to the wall as he came closer, head cocked to one side as he thought through a plan to grab her. It would be fun. Giving Gwen a taste of punishment… He loved even planning to hold her. …even if that planning and holding was for the sake of hitting her… Oh well. A smirk worked its way across his lips.

Silence followed. Gwen wished she would've gotten it over with.

Then she saw something fly towards Kevin and he snatched it out of the air like it was nothing. A shovel.

"Please?" Gwen whimpered.

Kevin still didn't stop.

Ben loved what happened afterwards…

* * *

**A/N: okay I totally loved this and it's not really a car argument, but the car was mentioned… close enough, right????**

**~Sky**


	35. Seatbelt

**A/N: this really upset me**

_**rex10 wrote:  
**_**2) where does Kevin live?**

_**Dwayne McDuffie:  
**_**2. In a garage apartment attached to the place he bought his mom.**

**Sad about that… my theory has been proved wrong...**

**Disclaimer: standard. Man Of Action owns Ben 10.**

* * *

"Why have you started wearing your seatbelt?" asked Gwen. She looked over at Kevin suddenly, eyes inquisitive. "I mean, back when we first met you, you were all rebel and 'I'm not gonna wear my seatbelt', but now you do and I'm wondering why…"

Ben snickered silently in the backseat. "She's got a point."

"Why all these questions?" countered Kevin, looking over at Gwen. He gave her his signature devilish smile. A signal that neither of them were going to get a straight answer unless they really worked at it.

"Just curious," noted Gwen, giving him her innocent schoolgirl look. She was innocent after all. Her boyfriend, not so much. He was always a little rebel boy at heart.

At that, Kevin rolled his eyes. "I have always worn a seatbelt," he retorted, keeping his eyes glued to the road, trying to ignore the searing stares of Gwen and Ben that dug through his skin.

"No, you haven't," said Ben, matter-of-factly. He gave a half-smile. Kevin's rejection of a simple topic meant that they were right and he was lying.

"Liars." Kevin's grip tightened on the wheel and he fought off a rumbling snarl that was nestled deep in her throat. He hated to admit it, even to himself, but those two Tennyson cousins were right. And he hated it more than he hated the Null Void. The dark teen hated being wrong and he hated being caught in a lie. So, in reality, he hated a whole lot of things.

Gwen gave a short laugh. "Look who's talking…"

"Gwen, I do not like it when you say hurtful things like that." He put on his crestfallen face that she could say things like that to him. He felt no pain underneath it all. "Can you apologize?"

The redhead looked at him with a sure-fire smile. She knew. She knew he had never worn his seatbelt. Not once. Not before he met them. Only after. "No. I'm not going to apologize. It's not my fault that you keep lying to yourself, Kevin."

He fought off a smirk. Yes, he was pissed that they had actually noticed something that he never thought they'd pick up on, and he hated them for it (he hated a whole lot of things, as said earlier), but he actually liked having them mess with him. Even if it made Ben absolutely giddy with joy and craziness. And Kevin hated a giddy Ben. Then again, who wouldn't? "I'm not lying to myself."

A pointer finger from each of Ben's hands punched Kevin's bicep. "Yeah, you're lying! Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

"My pants are _not_ on fire."

* * *

**A/N: hahahaha. Sorry. This was funny and I didn't want to make it any longer….**

**~Sky**


	36. Different For A Day

**A/N: more Gwevin being epic!**

**Disclaimer: writing these is getting very, very exhausting…**

* * *

Gwen had on a pair of Ben's old beat up, worn down Converse sneakers. They fit her perfectly. She had to admit that she loved the rubber soled shoes and that they actually looked much, much better than her black ballet flats or dark heels.

And she had on the lowest riding tank top that she could find in her closet. She had hardly any. Only one. A tight purple one that was definitely showing more than she usually liked, but she just wanted to look good. Being a bad girl for one day couldn't be totally impossible, right?

Her jeans were definitely low at the hip. They hugged tightly around her thin legs, showing them off nicely. The denim was dark navy blue instead of the light colors she usually wore when jeans were involved.

Then there was her hair. Her fiery red locks of flowing scarlet. It was pulled into a ponytail high up on her head like a crown of shining crimson. It fell around her neck nicely. That was one thing that remained the same for the Tennyson girl.

She was definitely trying to show Kevin a different side. Then again, he's wanted to show her how to fix a car for the day. So why not dress down for the occasion? Gwen loved her boyfriend more than her cousin and her parents and all her best friends that she considered more as sisters than friends. And she didn't want to screw things up with him at all. Because he was so incredibly perfect for her.

The sun was beating down on the back of her neck like the breath of a predator. She headed inside the garage, adjusting the necklace's positioning at the base of her throat. Even though it wasn't the kind of street look she was going for with the rest of her clothes, Gwen wasn't about to leave the locket that her soul mate had given to her at home. She loved it too much to even let go of it for an hour. The gold chain was so thin and fine that she always had to run her finger along it to make sure it was still there. The pendant contained a picture of the two of them, from one night at the pier. One night where Kevin was still normal. And now that he was again, she kept it as a symbol for strength, for the future, for them.

"Hey," she called into the near silent garage. The only sound from within was the echo of her voice and the nearly inaudible breathing of the dark teen beneath the undercarriage of the green and black racing striped car.

"Hey yourself," laughed Kevin, pulling himself from beneath the vehicle. He tossed the wrench in his hand over to the toolbox, carefully watching as it clanged against the rest of the tools before turning to look at Gwen.

He could've sworn she looked like an angel. Except she wasn't wearing white. Everything was glowing because of the sun behind her just lighting up her features and body so that her long shadow was cast upon him. Kevin looked her over.

Her shoes were beat up. He liked 'em.

Her shirt was nice and low. He liked it.

Her jeans were hugging against her body. He liked it.

Her hair wasn't changed. And he liked it.

"Gwen?" he asked, staring up at her with a cute little smile plastered across his sweet and mysterious face. Kevin's dark eyes scanned her over once again. "Why are you dressed like that?'

She gave him the pouty lip. "You said you were going to show me how to fix a car."

"You don't need to dress like that to fix a car." He smiled wildly. Just because she didn't have to didn't mean that Kevin couldn't enjoy the change for the time being. How could he not enjoy her looking incredibly beautiful against the sunlight? He had to love it. Because he loved her like crazy.

The redhead let out a long sigh. "So I borrowed Ben's shoes for nothing?"

Kevin chuckled softly, putting his hand on his forehead and leaning back against the rolling board again. "Gwendolyn Tennyson," he started, not bothering to look at her while talking. "Just because you did that and just because you didn't have to, doesn't mean that I don't like it."

The annoyed blaze of anger behind her jade green eyes disappeared instantly.

"Gwen, you look amazing." He had to keep himself from laughing at her. How could she think something so stupid? She was drop dead gorgeous!

All the girl could manage was a weak "Thanks."

"Come on." He tapped the ground next to him with his fingers. "Lemme show you how it's done, Miss America."

"I'm not one of _those_ girls," she snickered, dropping next to him and grabbing the toolbox to shove it closer to her boyfriend.

He ignored it, instead pulling her in for a long, soft kiss. Kevin let his lips touch hers quickly and she leaned her body into his for mere moments before they both pulled away.

"Let's fix my car." Kevin pulled his hand from around her, making sure to specifically touch the chain of the pendant around her neck.

"As if you would even trust me with a hammer." Gwen liked how he was pretending like life was normal. This moment was so much more than normal. Because she was being different for a day.

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**A/N: awwww. Cute! Review if you love it!**

**~Sky**


	37. Gwen's Car

**A/N: this has been in the works for a while, but McDuffie totally set me on it.**

**Maik wrote:  
****2)Will Gwen ever get a car?**

**McDuffie wrote:  
****2) She really wants one.**

**Disclaimer: nothing is mine**

* * *

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It buzzed again. So it wasn't just a text. It was actually someone calling her. Gwen grabbed it out of her pocket and checked the number. The garage. Kevin. Her heart gave an extra little flutter in her chest. "Hello?"

"Hey, I'm gunna be over to pick you up in, like, three minutes, 'kay? 'kay, bye!" Kevin hung up quickly after he had answered. The line was dead only ten seconds later, the machine starting to announce how to make another call.

The redhead jammed the phone back in her pocket. What was with that? Quick answer, say that he was randomly picking her up, then answer his own question and randomly hang up? That was the way Kevin did things sometimes, but that was a little too strange for her liking.

He was _Kevin_. Yes, that gave him the right to be strange and unstable and quirky and weird and do a lot of things he shouldn't, but that? Hanging up on her without any explanation? That was one thing she didn't want. She hated it when Kevin did that. Absolutely _hated_ it.

The car came bolting around the corner, nearly coming up and cutting the curb, Kevin driving like a maniac.

She waved to him, still a bit peeved, but now that her heart was beating about a thousand times each second with him coming, she couldn't help but smile. Gwen loved him, even the strange and quirky parts.

He leaned over, stretching against the nylon seatbelts, trying to get the door open. His fingers groped for the door's handle, working to open it from the inside, unsuccessfully.

Gwen reached down, her fingers touched the cool handle, and she opened the door easily compared to Kevin's struggling. "Hey," she said softly. She flipped her hair out of her eyes to see his totally giddy smile. Which was very un-Kevin of him. A giddy smile? Since when? Since when had Kevin ever been freaking _giddy_?

Kevin just twined his fingers with hers over the console of the car and then stretched his neck so that he could kiss her real hard, letting his lips dance against hers. She responded immediately, letting her tongue flick out to touch his kiss. Her hands found their way around his neck and her fingers latched together, creating a wall so that her ebony haired boyfriend couldn't break away from her. He found a way to get his fingers all tangled up in her luscious fiery red hair.

Then he pulled away, breaking apart her fingers. "Come on. We gotta get going." Kevin put the car back into gear and got the engine rumbling like a wildcat once more. Then he got it to shoot out of the parking space, heading back to the garage.

"Where are we going exactly?" Gwen dared to ask, wondering why he seemed so… so… There wasn't really a word to describe it. Just… ecstatic. He was like a six year old with a bunch of packets of straight up sugar! Too much energy and no way to vent it fast enough.

"Garage." His reply was short as he sucked in a breath and whipped the wheel quickly so that the car went up the curb and landed back down even harder with the sound of an axel nearly breaking.

"Kevin, you drive like Ben!"

He gave her his pouty face before whipping around yet another corner, this time making Gwen hold on for her life. "How can you insult my driving that way?"

"YOU'RE CRAZY!"

Kevin paused. "Good point." He turned the wheel sharply, the corner being cut again and an old lady nearly getting hit and then thrown up the hood and then shot off the trunk of the car. Good thing Kevin had great control on the car.

The garage was now in sight. Out front sat-

Gwen squealed with delight when she saw the giant ribbon on it that read "Do Not Touch. For Gwen."

It was a bright cherry red Kia Soul. She stared at it with a passion, the ecstasy reflecting in her eyes. "Kevin…"

"Yeah, I built it for you, babe." He kissed her once more, this time short and sweet instead of like before. "I found the plans on the internet after five hours of searching and then worked for _days_ to find the right parts and then the hull took almost two weeks to track down."

She just stared at him before just wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. When she pulled away, she found him smiling once more. "God, Kevin, I cannot believe you did that…" Gwen looked back at the car's sparkling cherry red paint job. "You're so stupid. You don't have to do something so stupid and build my entire car from scratch!"

"Well, I built Ben's from scratch and I don't even like him, so why just stop there? I got nothing better to do in the garage and I love you too much to even think about not building it for you from scratch." Kevin's arms curled around her waist. "You know that you deserve this and that I wasn't going to be a moron and just get all the parts for it and give it to some other moron to build it! Now where's the sentimental value in that?"

Gwen's smile widened. "Kevin, I'm so proud. You used a big word!"

He nodded and kissed her again. "I try as hard as I can to be good enough for you."

"And I try as hard as I can to be good enough for_ you_," Gwen sighed, trying to bury her face in his broad and strong chiseled chest. That way his warmth would envelope her and she would become drunk off his musky oil and garage smell and he would be able to rest his chin on top of her head and she would be able to love him even more, even after driving like a total crazybox.

"Meet ya halfway," he chuckled with a devilish grin.

The red haired girl got her head to rest on his shoulder. "Deal."

He pulled his hands from her scarlet hair. "Come on. Give it a test drive, Gwen."

She smiled and moved so that she wasn't twined into his body and so that they were no longer melted to be one person. "Let's go."

Kevin opened his own door and hauled himself out of the driver's seat.

The redhead darted out the passenger side door and towards her new car. It looked like it glittered in the bright sunlight. "Kevin, it's so pretty."

"Just like you." He pulled the ribbon off so that it wasn't totally blocking the windshield and the view of the road. Kevin tossed it into the garage before watching Gwen run her fingers over the glowing crimson hood. His obsidian eyes followed her as she made her way to the driver's side door and opened it wide, taking in the sight of the warm leather seats that had been baking in the sunlight for the past hour.

And he knew she loved it.

* * *

**A/N: ah. I just love that car and it looked kinda perfect for Gwen. Thanks to McDuffie for finally getting me to write this down! (even though I hate a whole lot of his work!) REVIEW!**

**~Sky**


	38. The Backseat

**A/N; since im utterly and totally upset by the fact of Kevin sitting in the backseat of Kevin's car (it's a disgrace), I have found an advantage of the backseat. So here's a Car Argument for you all.**

**Disclaimer: Skylark is not Man Of Action. Therefore, don't own Ben 10 or any of the characters.**

* * *

Kevin hated the backseat. He positively despised the backseat. It was like his Kryptonite. He hated the freaking backseat more than he hated the brunette Tennyson who usually sat there.

But now it was his turn. His turn in the cool leather backseats. Ben sat there so much that there was a print of his back and rear end practically burned into the seat. It was a very, very scary thought to Kevin. His friend's butt was printed into his backseat.

Sitting in that backseat was like a death chamber. It was probably worse than Chinese Water Torture. And Kevin knew how that worked. It was some scary shizz. Turned out that the Chinese were better at torture than he had originally known. Julie was just that much scarier to him. Mostly because he didn't know whether she was Chinese or Japanese.

"Ben, why couldn't we have taken my car?" snarled the dark teen, glaring at the brunette Tennyson with evil obsidian eyes through the rearview mirror. "I like to drive too, you know."

There was an evil smirk planted on Ben's face. "I know that, Kev, but you built me this car for a reason."

"Yes, and that reason happened to be so that _you_ could drive _your_girlfriend around and so I didn't have to give you rides to every freaking place in Bellwood!" Kevin felt like ripping his eyebrows off his face he was so mad at Benji.

A short chuckle came from Ben. "Kevin, you know you love the backseat."

There was a short farting sound from the driver of the car.

"NO, BEN, I REALLY DON'T LIKE THE BACKSEAT BECAUSE I AM ALSO DOWNWIND, DANG IT!"

Ben laughed really, really hard. Annoying Kevin was fun.

Annoying Ben was more fun for Kevin. He whacked the back of Ben's little brainless brunette head repeatedly for the rest of the ride with Gwen giggling in the passenger seat the whole way to the Forever Knight castle.

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**A/N: why do I love annoying Kevin and making a fool out of Benji? I don't know. Leave a review if you loved it and if you didn't, still leave a review! Thank you!**

**~Skylark**


	39. Magic

**A/N: wow. I just needed to get something up today. It's insane how busy I've been.**

**This one goes out to one of my fave reviewers: ledah13. not an actual fanfic user, but always out there and I love reading the reviews on everything. This idea was given to me back at like **_**chapter thirteen**_** and I've been saving it since forever. Now I think I should use it. Thanks for all the reviews, Ledah! They always make me laugh!**

**And after this is the one from my 200****th**** reviewer: TheSoundOfMelodies**

**Disclaimer: Skylark Evanson owns nothing**

* * *

"Do you know how skilled I am?" asked Kevin, looking at Ben with his deep obsidian eyes through the rearview mirror. "I can fix cars. I can be a hero and bad guy at the same time. And I'm epic at stalking."

Gwen looked over at the dark teen in the driver's seat. He was just gloating at how perfect he was so that he could piss off Ben. Or maybe he was trying to impress her… She liked the latter option the best. But she wasn't impressed by the last one...

"Oh yes, Mighty Kevin," mocked Ben, putting a British accent on his voice. He did a fake bowing thing. "What else can you do, O' Wise One?"

Since the car had hit a particularly long red light, Kevin clapped his hands together in a somewhat mysterious way. "Magic."

"Pfft!" Ben started laughing and doubled over, holding his stomach like his guts were trying to fall out because he was laughing so hard.

The redhead looked over at him and raised an eyebrow. "Magic? Really? Was that the best thing you could come up with to lie about? Why not some kind of sharpshooter with a thirty two round caliber or something?"

"I can do that too, Gwen, but I'm serious about the magic thing." His obsidian eyes stared right into her and she could feel by his gaze that he was being totally a hundred percent serious with her and her cousin who was now gasping for air between girlish giggling fits.

She had to look back at him. Ben was blue in the face. It was pretty funny.

"Okay, Kevin, show us what you can do with-" Gwen paused so that she could do the mysterious clap thing that Kevin had done earlier. "-magic!"

He raised an eyebrow in her direction.

The light turned red.

"Show you in a minute," he said, letting his foot press down on the gas pedal so that the car charged forward at an alarming rate to anyone who wasn't used to his driving. Ben and Gwen were used to his crazy acceleration and quick braking so that the tires squealed beneath the car. "Gotta get to the next red light."

"Or to Mr. Smoothy for a smoothie," said Ben, barely regaining his composure while he wiped the drool off his face. He stuck his head between the front seats. "Then we can see you and your-" He also did the fancy clapping thing. "-magic!"

Kevin was getting a little creeped out by them… He pulled around the corner, the car coming face to face with another red light. "Gwen, what's that in your hair?"

The girl's normally pallid cheeks immediately flushed red and she started to fix her hair.

"No, no," he said, reaching across to help her. "This," he pulled a deck of cards from her mane of fiery scarlet hair. "How the heck do you get a deck of cards in your hair, Gwen?" he asked, staring at her with his false shocked look. It turned into a devilish smile.

"Kevin, don't ever say I have something in my hair _ever_ again. Especially when _you_ put it there." Gwen's eyes narrowed at the dark teen. She loved him, but lying to her and then messing with her was not going to get him on her good side. Not like they were officially dating or anything, but she liked keeping it as a possibility.

Instead of replying, he just smiled wide and tantalizingly. Kevin pulled the deck of cards out of the deck, sliding them neatly into his hand. He splayed them out in a fan-like fashion. "Pick a card, any card," he instructed Ben, directing this trick towards his brunette friend. "Except the one on top. I don't like the one on top so don't pick it."

Ben stared at Kevin like he was stupid. Which was true. He stuck out his hand and hovered it over the cards in the middle of the fan-like pattern. Then he immediately struck for the card on the top.

"I don't like that one," said Kevin with a shrug of surrender, "but whatever you want, Benji." He sighed and floored the gas again as the light turned green, folding the deck of cards back up and holding it in one hand as his other hand steered the car along the road towards Mr. Smoothy as Ben had asked. "Look at it, then shove it back in the deck as soon as we're at another light." He checked the speedometer. About a hundred and twelve miles an hour. He smirked.

The brunette was thrown against the backseat with some serious G-force. His jade green eyes flicked to the card. King of something… He couldn't make out the symbol. His hand was shaking too hard to tell. The car was going so fast… Clubs. He just thought it, not really caring if it was right or not. If Kevin were the real thing, he'd know exactly which card Ben had.

Brakes kicking in hard, Ben was thrown forward against the seatbelt as was Gwen as they braced themselves against nothing at all. Kevin used the leverage from pressing down on the pedal and a hand on the wheel to stop himself from flying forward and being practically murdered by the seatbelt. He stuck the deck back so Ben could stick his card back on it.

The brown-haired Tennyson put his card back on the top of the deck, holding his head with his other hand. Kevin's crazy driving was only getting worse. It was a miracle he hadn't been thrown in jail yet for all the speeding tickets he'd racked up in the glove box.

"Kevin, you need to slow down and stop doing that!" huffed a now furious Gwen. How could he be so inconsiderate for her and her cousin?

Running one hand through his ebony black hair, Kevin looked back at Ben. "Ben, you got something in your hair," he said, smirking again.

"If this is my card, I swear I'm going to torture you until you tell me how you did it," said Benjamin, running his fingers through his hair until, sure enough, he pulled a card from his locks of muddy brown. He closed his eyes, really hoping it wasn't what he thought it was. Holding it in front of his face, he opened his eyes.

King of clubs.

He cursed under his breath.

"Cool, ain't it?" laughed Kevin, hitting the brakes again, lighter this time. He knew how he did it. No one else did though. That was what he loved.

Gwen blinked a few times. "Where did you learn all this stuff?" she asked, watching him now with awe. Kevin did have skill in more ways than she could've imagined. Magic was one of his many talents.

Now she could be jealous of him…

"Met David Blaine back in New York." Kevin floored the breaks once again as he pulled into his usual parking space at Mr. Smoothy. The place was almost empty at this time of the night. The moon lingered high in the sky. "He taught me a lot of this crap, but it stuck and I made a little cash off of it." He shrugged. "You guys can't say all the stuff I learned in New York was bad, now can you?"

Both of them shook their heads.

With a redeemed smile, Kevin leaned over and popped open the glove compartment, Gwen shying away from him slightly as he did whatever he was doing. She wasn't sure what the dark teen was doing, but she sure wanted to know.

"Now check this one out." Kevin grabbed one of the bigger speeding tickets in the bunch that stuck out of his glove compartment. He formed his hand into a cylinder with a little hole in it. He looked at Gwen specifically, giving her his signature grin and a little glint of that familiar roguish charm sparkled in his eyes. He carefully flattened out the ticket against the console between the front seats before carefully pushing it into his hand.

"What the heck is that supposed to do?" snorted Ben, finding this trick categorized under the term 'lame'.

Kevin's looked back at Ben before returning his gaze to Gwen. He opened his fingers one by one until she could see what was in his hand: a yellow rose. Her favorite.

She looked at him, lips forming a little 'o' in shock.

"Yeah," he said, smiling at her with a flash of pride in his grin. He offered it out to her, placing it in her palm. "It's for you."

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**A/N: cute Gwevin-y ending. Awwww. Thanks to Ledah! This was really fun to write… it's a miracle I finished it tonight. Anyways, check for my review on 'Fused' tomorrow or Sunday (probably Sunday or even Monday). Thanks for reading and leave a review!**

**~Sky**


	40. Poking In The Backseat

**A/N: this one's plotline was from TheSoundofMelodies for being the 200****th**** reviewer! Thanks a ton!**

**Disclaimer: idea isn't mine and neither are characters.**

* * *

Kevin was too tired to drive, being half-crazed because of a knock on the head that was way to hard to leave him in any state to think, drive, or even think about driving.

Ben was in the backseat, watching Kevin to make sure he didn't fall asleep with his concussion. "Gwen, are you sure him being loopy is okay?"

The redhead looked at the boys in the rearview mirror. Kevin was half-delusional with a goofy smile on his face. Definitely had a concussion. Ben was leaning away from him, trying not to get cooties or whatever his stupid plan was for it. Clearly it wasn't working. "Um, yeah, I'm pretty sure he's fine."

Kevin stretched out a hand and jabbed a finger into Ben's bicep especially hard.

"Ow," came the brunette's voice. "What was that for?"

The dark teen just poked him again.

"Gwen, he's lost his mind."

Kevin poked Ben once more.

"Gwen, Kevin's hurting me."

"Kevin, quit hurting Ben."

Kevin poked Ben.

Ben poked Kevin back.

"Guys, cut it out. Ben, leave Kevin alone. He's got a concussion or something. Kevin, leave Ben alone. I have no excuse for it, but just leave him alone." The redhead let her gaze travel back to the road.

Kevin poked Ben.

"Gweeeeennn!" whined Ben, stretching out the 'e' into multiple syllables.

"Ben, shut up, I'm driving."

"Yeah, you're driving Kevin's car."

"Only because he's half insane!" Gwen argued, knowing very well that the dark teen was mentally unstable and acting like a five year old.

"He could still drive!"

"He could probably drive in his sleep, but do we let him? No!"

Kevin poked Ben another time.

"KEVIN, STOP THAT!" Ben poked Kevin harder.

"MEH!" Kevin jabbed Ben with his pointer finger.

"NO TOUCHING EACH OTHER!" shouted Gwen.

They both fell silent for the longest time.

Gwen let out a breath of relief, finally glad they had shut up.

"KEVIN'S POKING ME WITH A STRAW!"

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**A/N: *tries to stop giggling* review!**

**~Sky**


	41. Arguing

**A/N: alright, up for some… I don't know what to write yet… lemme see… CAR ARGUMENT! I love arguing.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. But I want to own the car…**

* * *

Gwen knew something was different between her and Kevin. She loved the way it was different, but sometimes it drove her totally insane.

Maybe it was the way he did things. Maybe it was the way he was funny at the dumbest times. Or even because he was just the perfect match for her.

Maybe it was his crooked smile. The way he just smirked and that twinkle in his eyes appeared out of nowhere. She couldn't help but smile right back and then look away, hoping he wouldn't notice the blushing that occurred in her normally pale cheeks.

Or maybe it was that strong but silent demeanor of his. The way he knew what he wanted and he just did it instead of telling anyone else. The silence and the strength.

And with Kevin, he just always loved to argue. All the time. Even over something as stupid as ginger in a smoothie. Just dumb things. And he hated smoothies in the first place. He'd even argue with her what soda was better.

The redhead knew nothing about cars. But she knew what the difference between his Camaro and Ben's dumb car was. Yet he insisted about arguing on that topic too. And it was just cars. Something that she had no say in. They were just cars to her. Something to drive her around. Something to ride in. Something to look cute driving. And something that Kevin looked really, _really_ cute driving in.

And here was the best part: she could never get over him.

Now that she sat in the passenger seat, she was just thinking this all over. This was so long and so exhausting. Just thinking was peaceful. She smiled at the thought of another argument that was waiting to arise.

"Gwen, why are you smiling?"

And that was just the beginning of it. He would say something as simple as that. Then it would spin into more questions and some stupid defending on her own behalf. Then it would turn into something full-blown and voices raised. But it was fun, no arguing on that.

She knew they both loved it. She knew she loved arguing for the fact that she could talk to Kevin. She knew it left no awkward silence. She knew it was a way to keep entertained. She knew it was so easy to be talking to him when they were fighting over something stupid. There was never a dull moment. That car was always full of raised voices and glaring eye contact and then even the occasional yell... But that was only when it got really, really dramatic.

"I just like smiling," she said softly to answer him, that smile widening as she stared out the window instead of making eye contact with him. She knew that looking away from him would spark a little bit of annoyance from him. He would question why she was facing away from him and it could turn into some insane discussion about how his eyes were brown, not onyx.

She heard him give a deep sigh and began to smirk evilly. "You're such a girl."

Gwen really did love how Kevin was so easily irritated. He was funny when he was irritated. He smiled more and he did that annoyed huffy sigh. Then there was the way he was so cute and adorable and so insanely perfect in his own special way. So special…

"Yes, I am a girl." She rolled her eyes and looked over at him.

He had one hand on the wheel and the other on the console between him and Gwen. The girl looked at him and smiled. Her jade tinted eyes scanned his square jaw line and the way his lips were curled upward in a cocky smile. "That must be why you're so pretty."

Somehow, Gwen noticed that this hadn't spiraled into a fight yet. Instead of bringing one on, she just looked over at him and felt her brow knit in confusion. Then she let it wash away. She didn't want to ask.

The redhead just looked at him and smiled. She really did love him. A whole lot more than anyone else could understand or explain. It was just too hard. She and Kevin were exact opposites, but he was incredibly fun to hang around with and to argue with and to see him smile and to just be sitting there next to him. "Kevin, you're so annoying." So contradictory to her feelings for the dark teen.

"What did I do?" he asked, blinking a couple of times and shaking his head a bit before staring at her.

"Did you ever notice how much we argue?" Now Gwen was waiting for it. She knew he'd start something now. She knew she'd be an instigator and push him over the edge and now he'd start being all defensive.

Kevin smiled. "Yes, I did notice."

She blinked a couple of times at this as Kevin had done only moments earlier. This was insane. What was up with him? How had he noticed? He was Kevin. He never noticed anything! "You what?"

"I did notice. Didn't I just say that?" He chuckled softly before taking one hand and running it through his long ebony locks. Kevin was smirking again. "Gwen, I think we're arguing again."

"No, this is only how it starts," she corrected, now unsure of herself. How did this somehow turn on her? "Do you ever think we argue too much?"

"If we didn't argue, life would be normal. And that would be boring."

Sadly, Kevin had a point.

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**A/N: originally, this was better in my head. Sorry that it turned out kinda crappy when I wrote it out. Anyways, please review!**

**~Sky**


	42. If We Died

**A/N: another car argument in the works… well, I have no ideas sadly so let's just wing thi- GOT IT!**

**One thing to tell you guys- it's hilarious how all my 'Moments' fics get the most reviews out of all my stories, but yet this one always seems to get the most readers… strange… anyways, thanks to all of you for reading!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10 in any way, shape, or form. But I do want Kevin…**

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"What would happen if we all died tomorrow?" asked Ben, slouched down in the backseat but bright jade eyes alight with questions. "I mean, what if the garage exploded while we were all sitting in there and then we all just died?"

Gwen didn't even want to know why her cousin was thinking that. But she could see where he was coming from. With a fight everyday and the odds of at least one of them being killed were very high. Yeah, they were a team, but more than once, it had been shown that if someone decided to attack them one by one, someone was going down and the likelihood of it being the bad guy was always slim. That's why they always stuck together more often than not.

Ben wasn't quite done yet. "Like, how would my fans react to my death?"

He just had to bring that up, didn't he? Gwen snorted angrily in the passenger seat as Kevin climbed back into the car. He had been out filling up the gastank for the long drive over to Los Soledad. The dark teen didn't bother to ask what the discussion was about. He just gave up on trying to talk much anymore.

"And what would happen with all the bad dudes out there?" continued Ben, voice getting really annoying now since he wouldn't just shut up.

"They'd take over the world. No big deal." Gwen gave a little shrug before staring out the window. She knew that if they all died, she could be happy in at least one way: she'd still have Kevin whether anyone else liked it or not. "At least we'd all still be together, right?"

"Nope," came Kevin's confident reply as he pulled the gearshift into drive and pressed down slightly on the gas pedal so that the car rolled forward slowly out of the gas station that had refueled the car. "We wouldn't be together."

Ben gave him a curious look and one eyebrow raised. "Why?"

Kevin's lips curled up in his natural devious smile and his deep, dark eyes were twinkling in that way that meant he was up to no good. "Because I wouldn't be stupid enough to let myself get blown up. A little armor over me and pull Gwen real close and we're fine."

The brunette teen's eyes widened. "WHAT ABOUT ME?"

"I'm leaving you to fend for yourself. The Omnitrix should protect you, right?" Kevin chuckled while Gwen stared at him in awe. He would save her?

Ben's jaw dropped a little. "Thanks a lot, Kev. Glad to know you'd let me die."

"You're welcome," he said smugly, still smiling. "And besides, maybe it's better if you weren't around anymore with that big ego of yours."

The Omnitrix bearer's jaw probably would've dropped to the floor.

Gwen's shocked face lasted for a little while… Kevin would save her?

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**A/N: ah, the glory of Kevin being a butt-head… please don't forget to review!**

**~Sky**


	43. Where Are They?

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A/N: okay, I'm trying to find something positive in the world. We had a family loss and Kasta's totally crushed. I cried for a long time (I'm definitely upset with myself on that one… I hate crying. Shows weakness. Ugh…). On the bright side, let's see if we can write a Car Argument without it going down hill….

**Disclaimer: Rawr**

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Ben headed into the garage, questioning where Gwen and Kevin could be. He needed Kevin to distract Gwen and he needed Gwen to help with his homework. And by help he meant get her to give him the answer when she was distracted by something else (usually Kevin) so that she didn't know that she was actually helping with his homework.

The brunette looked around, finding the garage empty. He thought he could smell Gwen's perfume, but didn't question it. She had probably been hanging around. The question was where had she gone? He needed his homework done!

His jade eyes darted around the garage. He spotted a soda cup. So Kevin had been here recently too… Ben walked towards the cup and looked at the side, running his finger along it. The soda was still cold, the condensation clinging to the side of the cup.

Okay, so Kevin was still around here somewhere and it smelled like Gwen in the garage. Odds were that they were still here. If Kevin was here, Gwen was here. And if Gwen was here, she could do Ben's homework. It was all simple, really.

To find them was the hardest part…

Ben looked in the backroom. He opened the fridge. There was hardly a chance that Gwen and Kevin would be in there, but he closed it soon after, a smoothie clutched in his hand. Oh yes. It was worth "searching" the fridge.

The bearer of the Omnitrix headed over towards the bathroom attached to the garage. He looked in the mirror and ruffled his hair, then spent some time fixing it. He liked fixing his hair. It helped his ego to stare in the mirror and tell himself he was beautiful.

A faint sound echoed into the bathroom through the open doorway. But when Ben poked his head out of the garage, he didn't see anything. And the car was still sitting there in the middle of the garage, almost innocently.

Or faking innocent…

Ben crouched low and did some somersaults in the direction of the car, trying to be ninja-like and failing epically. When he was right beside the car in his crouched position, he leaned up a little bit to peer in the window.

He caught sight of Gwen and Kevin making out in the backseat. He ran, screaming bloody murder like a little girl. Right into a dumpster outside the garage. He was out cold in a matter of moments.

Kevin blinked a couple of times as the touch of Gwen's lips disappeared as the redhead looked around. "Did you hear Ben scream like a girl?" she asked, looking down at him from her position of being splayed across his chest.

"Nope," said Kevin, voice smooth. "I was distracted by you and your eyes." He knew every trick to Gwen.

The girl took a deep breath and let her soft lips fall against his rough ones moments later. She didn't care if he was just playing her by lying sometimes. She loved every minute of it.

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**A/N: hi. That was cute. I luv Ben screaming and running… anyways, review! Thanks!**

**~Sky**


	44. Pain With A Shoe II

**A/N: you guys remember the chapter "Pain With A Shoe"? yes, alrite, so here's another long-awaited chapter of 'Car Arguments'.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

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This is how it went down.

Gwen asked a simple question to which Kevin replied with an irritated snort.

When she asked again a few short seconds later in a nicer voice, he replied once more with daggers in the form of a fierce glare and he did his breathy sigh thing that meant he was disappointed in her.

"Kevin, can't you just reply to me like a man?" growled Gwen, folding her arms tightly across her chest and giving him a huffy breath. "Sometimes I question if you are one."

"Okay, Gwendolyn Tennyson, you're crossing the line now." The dark teen kept his obsidian gaze directed at her, rage glowing in them as a silently burning blaze. "I'm more of a man that you're cousin will ever be."

"At least he has the guts to-"

Kevin reached over and slapped his hand over the redhead's mouth to silence her. "Gwen, I'm serious, do _not_ start this with me. I'm not in the mood to deal with a girl like you. That, and I don't want to hit a girl. I would lose all my dignity for slapping you."

Gwen pulled his hand away from her mouth. "Kevin, you know you want to," she said, staring at him, her emerald orbs twinkling more than moonlight shining across a crystal clear lake a midnight. "You know you can't resist for much longer."

"At least one of us has self-control," muttered the Osmosian under his breath which earned him a slap from the girl. "Example A," he chuckled.

She slapped him again.

"Gwen, cut it out."

"Kevin, seriously, just-"

"Nooooooooooo!" he whined, sounding more like a little school girl than a seventeen year old bad boy.

"You don't want to?" Her voice had taken on a hurt tone.

"I do, but really, Gwen, just don't push me."

"You sound like the singing penguin from 'Happy Feet'."

"I sound like I'm singing? And like a penguin?" he asked, giving her a furious look. "Really, you've already insulted me enough today. Can we please just drop it? Please?"

Gwen through her hands up, her fingertips touching the roof of the car. Her gaze fell out the window at the tennis courts that they were parked at. "Kevin, I cannot believe that you do this to me sometimes. You're mad, and then you say please. It confuses me, it really does."

"Haha," snickered Kevin. "I confused a smart girl."

"You think I'm smart?"

"You think I have roguish charm?"

"Not that I'll admit."

"Then same here."

The two fell into a silence.

Gwen was frustrated. She wanted to smack Kevin silly. And sure, she had horrible self control, but still, it sounded good to smack Kevin a lot of the time. He was very tempting to smack.

Kevin liked the silence. Arguing with Gwen was like driving Ben to Mr. Smoothy every day for the rest of his pitiful life.

"Kevin?" asked Gwen in the sweetest tone she could muster even though on the inside she was an infuriated storm of rage and torment.

He looked at her, eyes cautious and wary. Who knew what an angry Anodite could do to him? "Yes?" he asked, gulping down a lump of fear in his throat.

"Can I have your shoe?"

The Osmosian didn't know where this was going, but he didn't think he was going to like it much. Kevin slowly reached down and slipped off his combat boot before handing it over to Gwen, looking like a kid that was about to get a lashing.

"Thank you," said Gwen politely, smirking with a bit of evil. There was a strange gleam in her eyes. Kevin feared it. "Now why does your shoe smell like bacon?"

Kevin shrugged.

Gwen started beating him viciously with the dark combat boot. "KEVIN ETHAN FREAKING LEVIN, JUST ASK ME OUT YOU FOOL! I LIKE YOU AND YOU LIKE ME SO JUST FREAKING GET UP THOSE GUTS OF STEEL AND EVEN PUT SOME FREAKING ARMOR ON IF YOU HAVE TO BECAUSE IF YOU ASK ME OUT, IT'S NOT GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Kevin, who was trying to shield his face, replied by screaming, "GWEN, QUIT HITTING ME WITH MY SHOE!"

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**A/N: ah, Kevin. Will you ever learn that asking Gwen out is better than the alternative? Review!**

**~Sky**


	45. Slapfest

**A/N: so high school is sucking. It's only sophomores and freshmen at my campus but I still hear people coughing "freshie" when I walk into study hall. So _yay_.**

**Now odds are good that I will only be able to update on weekends now since golf and homework have kicked in. sorry guys, but I'll do the best I can to write on my iPod touch and post it ASAP**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

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Ben stared at Kevin and Gwen as they smacked each other back and forth and back and forth. Each had a red mark on one cheek that was quickly turning a scarlet and crimson color with each added slap on top of the ones that had come in the minutes before.

"Kevin, you don't have to be such a jerk!" Gwen slapped him right back, the sound reverberating throughout the car, bouncing off the leather and being absorbed by the fabric on the ceiling.

The jade-eyed, brunette teen in the backseat stared at them both. It had been like twenty minutes now and the Forever Knights weren't just sitting at their castle waiting to get their butts kicked. If they did…. Ben snickered to himself. That'd be pretty funny. A bunch of guys sitting in metal tights and helmets and staring at a clock and waiting to have their butts kicked... But it was a mission and now they were late. Why? Because Gwen and Kevin had to knock each other senseless.

A mission had to go on hold for a slapfest between the lovers. Great.

"Gwen, really, I am not being a jerk. After all I've been through, you have the guts to call me names!" And he slapped her right back, softer. Even though he was much stronger than her and his morals were much less, he still knew the rules about hitting girls and about love. Despite arguments, love still rules over everything else in the world.

"Don't you know not to hit a girl?" Gwen yelled. She slapped him again. His cheek was turning even more red with every moment and Gwen wasn't taking the same pity on him that he was taking on her. She knew she didn't have to take pity on a tough, muscle car driving ex-con. He was strong enough to take it.

"PLEASE JUST STOP HITTING EACH OTHER!"

The dark teen's obsidian orbs turned to the backseat as the redhead looked back at her cousin. "When did you get here?" asked Kevin, blinking a couple of times before looking over to Gwen. "Did I pick him up or did he just randomly get in?"

Instead of replying, Gwen punched Kevin's shoulder. It wasn't harsh enough to hurt, but it was enough to give him a little piece of her mind. "You picked him up and we're supposed to be on a mission, remember?"

"NEITHER OF YOU REMEMBERED!" yelled Ben. He was furious by now, aggravated that his cousin and her boyfriend couldn't ignore this argument until they had gotten the fight over with and they were at Mr. Smoothy. "WE'VE BEEN SITTING IN THIS EXACT SPOT FOR ALMOST A HALF HOUR NOW! IT'S GETTING RIDICULOUS! QUIT HITTING EACH OTHER AND DRIVE!"

Kevin glared at Ben, his dark orbs flaring with a black blaze of fury. His raven colored hair fell over one eye, covering the reddening part of his ghostly white complexion. "You guys are so mean to me. I'm a living being too, ya know. You can't treat me like crap all the time."

Gwen slapped Kevin one more time. "Really? Because you don't have to be such a jerk all the time."

"Look who's talking, the girl who's abusing my poor face. I'm not made out of stone anymore, Gwen. It actually does hurt!" Kevin pushed the ebony strands away from his face and held a hand over his skin that was turning more of a shade of cherry now. A nearly blood red color.

Gwen stared at him. At last, she could see the real hurt in his dark eyes. "I'm sorry, Kev," she murmured, staring at him with the slightest of tiny smiles crossing her thin, pale lips.

And the ex-con smiled right back.

"Oh god," groaned Ben, immediately covering his eyes with his hands, his palms going right over his eyelids that were closed. He didn't want to see what was coming next. It was always the same thing after a fight.

He sat there trying to drown out the sounds of their making out for the next ten minutes until he finally interrupted by yelling about Forever Knights. Eventually Kevin realized that there _was_ a mission and that was why Ben was _still _in the back seat.

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**A/N: alright, after this I'm writing another really good one. Full detail and all. Like 'Hit' and 'Poison' and 'Breathe'. So I hope you enjoy it… review!**

**~Sky**


	46. Hide and Seek

**A/N: wow, I'm totally busy today. MY ROOM JUST GOT PAINTED AND WE FINISHED IT UP AND I'M IN MY UBER COOLIO CHAIR NAO! Time to write**

**Disclaimer: you know I own my fishstick and my imaginary bestie gurls**

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"So here's what we're gonna do," said Kevin, voice harsh as he stared at Ben with his cold, obsidian eyes. The brunette was sitting in the backseat of the car. "Since you can't shut up, we're gonna play hide and seek, alright?"

"I just said I wanted to go to Mr. Smoothy," muttered Ben, pointing out the already obvious to Kevin. He flipped his hair out of his eyes."I never said anything about hide and seek."

Gwen stared at her boyfriend. "What are you doing?" she asked, already knowing he was scheming to get rid of Ben.

"So I'm gonna sit here and count to fifty and you're gonna hide, okay? Okay." His dark eyes flashed fiercely. "Now get your skinny butt out of my car, Tennyson."

The brunette snorted. "At least _someone_ thinks my butt's skinny," he muttered, clamoring out of the car by crawling out from behind the passenger seat that Gwen was in. "So I got until you count to fifty to hide?"

Kevin nodded. He smiled wickedly.

Ben already knew what he was planning. "Close your eyes and count really, really loud. Gwen, make sure you help him out with the loud part." And Ben raced off, slipping behind a tall oak tree.

Trying to get the jade-eyed Tennyson to buy into it, Kevin began to count. "One… two… three…"

Ben, making sure Gwen was counting along and watching him instead of her raven-haired boyfriend, crept closer to the car again, knowing that he could be quiet enough to sneak into the trunk in silence.

His jade eyes found his cousin and he could see that she was trying to stifle her laughter with one hand over her mouth. But she still managed to count along with Kevin who had barely managed to get to twenty and now he was struggling to find the number that came after it.

Ben popped open the trunk with a slow and careful hand, knowing that Kevin's car didn't have an alarm on the trunk. Or else he would've been in a bit of trouble. The brunette crawled into the back of the trunk and dropped himself into the small opening.

Kevin was still struggling around the twenties. Gwen was guiding him through it, trying not to burst out laughing.

Finally, when the dark teen reached thirty, he opened his eyes and stopped counting. His hand fell on the gearshift and he began to pull out of Ben's driveway. "That kid is such an idiot," he snickered as he kicked the car into drive and began to drive towards Gwen's house so that they could hang out there in silence without an annoying brunette teen on them the whole time.

"No, Kev, you're the idiot," she murmured under her breath as the wind whipped back her scarlet mane and Kevin's muscle car raced down the street.

It turned out that the trunk had a lock on it and that getting out wasn't near as easy as getting in. So two hours later, as Gwen and Kevin went back to the car, the first thing they heard was "KEVIN, LET ME OUT! I FARTED AND IT SMELLS REALLY BAD NOW!"

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**A/N: there you go. Thanks. Haha. Review now!**

**~Sky**


	47. Kevin Runs Over Ship

**A/N: I dug up a notebook and found a billion new Car Argument things that have been written down since forever.**

**Disclaimer: don't own.**

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Kevin pulled into Julie's driveway, having been nominated to drive her to her tennis match with Ben grounded and Gwen not having a car and her parents out of town. He silently pulled his 1963 green and black striped Chevy Camaro into her black paved driveway.

A long cold shriek came from beneath his tire.

"Oh shizz," he cussed under his breath, immediately jumping out of the car after fiercely throwing the door open and then pulling it closed quickly behind him with a vicious tug.

Ship was laying beneath the car's black tire.

"Crap."

"KEVIN!" The petite Asian-American girl had run from the front door of her house and raced to his car, dropping to her knees to check on her precious pet. "HOW COULD YOU RUN HIM OVER? HE'S ONLY A-" She wanted to say dog but that didn't even sound right.

"Galvanic mechomorph," said Kevin, quickly ready to defend his actions. "He's an indestructible creature. Chill, Julie."

She stood up again to her full height, which was very short compared to Kevin's height of six foot one. She slapped his chest. "You ran over my pet!"

"He's indestructible!"

"You're a horrible driver!"

"This coming from the girl who I drove on her first date with my best friend…"

"I'm grateful and all for that, but you ran over the dog that I found on that date!"

"Galvanic mechomorph," corrected Kevin. He ran his fingers through his hair. "Julie, he's fine."

"YOU RAN HIM OVER!"

"IT WAS A FREAKIN' ACCIDENT!"

"KEVIN ETHAN LEVIN, WHEN GWEN HEARS ABOUT THIS-"

Kevin slapped his hand over her mouth. "I'll give you twenty bucks and free rides for a month if you keep quiet about this."

She glared at him, muddy brown eyes glittering with hatred for the dark teen. She bit his fingers.

Kevin pulled away quickly, shaking his hand in pain.

"Deal," she huffed, pulling her dog out from under the tire as he began to frantically wag his practically non-existent tail. "And you have to take care of him while I'm at tennis today." She gave him a cold and wicked smirk.

Huffing under his breath, Kevin opened up the passenger door for the girl and she stepped in, sitting in the seat with Ship on her lap. "And don't forget my racket. I left it on my porch when you ran over my dog."

"Galvanic mech-"

"Shut it, Kevin."

Kevin cursed under his breath for making a stupid deal, but he grabbed her tennis racket off the porch and threw it in the backseat before getting into the driver's seat to take Julie off to the tennis courts. As long as Gwen didn't find out, he'd be fine with chauffeuring to Julie's every need.

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**A/N: hehe. Kevin's so stupid…. Anyways, please review guys! Thanks for reading!**

**~Sky**


	48. When It's Cold

**A/N; another installment of 'Car Arguments'!**

**Disclaimer: don't own anything.**

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Kevin stared blankly out the car's fogged over windshield as if he could actually see the warehouse they were staking out in front of. He reached one finger out that was covered by his black glove and touched the windshield.

The fog melted away under his touch, leaving a small circle the size of the pad on his finger that showed the world outside. "So who wants to play hangman?" he asked, knowing that all three of them were bored absolutely senseless. He looked over at the passenger sear to see the redhead sitting there and out of the corner of his eye, he could see the Omnitrix bearer shivering in the backseat.

"I'm in," said Gwen immediately, a deep blue knit hat hugging her crown of scarlet hair. "No use just sitting here. Might as well keep ourselves so we don't die of boredom."

Ben snickered. "Count me in, Kev. Dying of boredom isn't how I want to go."

Kevin reached out slowly, still trying to keep warm in the icy air of the car. He drew his fingers across the windshield and three lines appeared quickly followed by two more after a space, then a single line and underneath all those he drew five more lines. Then he reached a little higher, slightly coming out of his seat to draw the hangman part of the game. Or at least the noose.

"I guess we should kind of be glad it's cold," said Ben from the backseat, "because if it was warm, we wouldn't have foggy windows to draw on." He stared long and hard at the puzzle Kevin had posed. Three letters, two letters, one letter, five letters.

"M," said Gwen confidently. She looked over at Kevin as he leaned forward a bit to draw in an M as the first letter of the last word.

"Kevin, does that last word happen to be 'moron'?" asked Ben with a cold glare at his raven-haired friend with the deep black earthen eyes as a sneaky, devilish smile possessed his lips. The dark teen didn't respond and Ben was forced to say, "Kevin..."

"Ben is a moron," laughed Gwen, leaning forward herself to help Kevin draw out the rest of the letters in the puzzle. It wasn't hard to get it if you had at least one word and knew the person who was writing it all too well. She kind of figured that he'd pick on her cousin to start something so that they weren't so bored.

"Am not," defended Ben with a snort.

The redhead didn't even acknowledge his words as she began to draw on her own window on the passenger side, neatly creating her own puzzle. She put up a long word, thirty letters.

Kevin's brow knit together. "Well screw this," he said, his smirk fading faster than the sun under a cloud. "I suck with big words. Quit showin' off your really big words."

"It's easy," she said, smiling at him. "It's a song."

Ben's smile grew again in the backseat. "."

"What the heck?" spluttered Kevin, his mind not even able to wrap around the word before Gwen was laughing and nodding and writing it out on the passenger side window, the tip of her gloved fingers drawing each letter out precisely and perfectly. "What does that mean?"

"You've never seen Mary Poppins?" chuckled Ben, looking at Kevin quizzically. "It's a movie. And on Broadway. And it's a massive franchise if you think about it. They got like a billion shirts with on them."

Kevin blinked and shook his head. "Never heard of it."

"Wow, someone's out of it," laughed Ben as he looked over Gwen's shoulder to see how she was spelling it. As soon as the last three letters were scrawled out, Ben immediately called out, "My turn!" and frantically got to work on the hangman on the back window.

As he was drawing it, he could faintly see through the fogged over windows and out to the snowy world that had enveloped the green and black striped muscle car. "Kevin?"

"Yeah?" asked the dark teen, turning back to look at the scrawny brunette.

"Why are there Forever Knights going through your trunk?"

Bolting from the car, a thin layer of jade green coated Kevin as his armor before he leapt at the two raiders of his trunk.

Gwen and Ben followed suit, ready for battle, knowing that the hangman game could wait.

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**A/N: they love hangman. Review please!**

**~Sky**


	49. Broken Bones

**A/N: I would've had this up earlier, but my friend (her penname is bbop11rocks) and I were partying it up earlier. Haha. You know how I am.**

**Disclaimer: own nothing at all, guys. Sorry.**

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His eyes were frantic, the panic glowing in them brighter than the headlights of his car did in the dead of midnight. His death-grip on the wheel had his knuckles white as snow. And the car sped down the highway at light speed as he prayed for some kind of miracle to save the red-haired beauty beside him.

She had just... dropped? His mind couldn't fully wrap around what had happened. She had just crashed into his arms like a bloody rag doll, her body collapsing against him with surprising force. He grabbed her and tried to rouse her, but her emerald eyes wouldn't flutter open or even flit as a sign that she was awake.

He knew he had to get her to safety. Quickly.

Why had they even gone out in the first place? It was a dumb idea, taking Gwen to stake out an arms-deal. She wouldn't have been able to hold her own in such a hostile environment. He cursed himself for not thinking of weapons against her defenses. Mana wasn't the strongest against big weapons like laser lances and cannons of steel and such. He of all people knew that. Yet she remained cold and silent in the passenger seat because of his stupid mistake.

What had he been thinking? Taking her with had been his worst idea yet.

Kevin let his car drag around a sharp curve, the back drifting out further than he would've liked. His knuckles remained white with his grip on the wheel as darkness haunted his obsidian orbs.

It was quiet; he was desperate. He whipped herder around the corner. Headlights shone in his eyes and he barely managed to rip around the edge of the massive truck before it barreled into the side of his precious Camaro.

His mind whirled as one of the rear wheels caught on the edge of the cliff his car sped along, dragging it down enough to send the other side flying around and downwards towards the unwelcoming ground below.

By the end of the horrifying, spiraling freefall, he had managed to wind up with enough broken bones to last himself a lifetime. But he didn't pause for a second, reaching over into the passenger seat to grab the now bleeding redhead with fear in his orbs that had been blackened with immense pain and misery.

He held her tightly and kept walking, his face twisting into a wincing grimace every few steps. But Kevin didn't stop. He had to get her help. He left his beloved car behind for something so much more important. Gwen.

As he pushed his way up the long hill again, headlights blared into his eyes, making him blink and take a step back, nearly stumbling with the girl in his twisted arms. Despite the icy, agonizing ache that echoed through his body, he tried to get the attention of the driver. And the car kept going.

He let out a long, low moan and trudged on down the road the way he had been going in the car. His eyes remained dark, clouded over with the agony that possessed his limbs and muscles, his whole body broken. It was a miracle Gwen had fared better. She was hardly even bleeding, the only issues were a few shards of the windshield's glass embedded in her pristine and pale skin. His half of the car had been mangled to bits and pieces.

Kevin kept moving, afraid to stop and give in to his bloodied wounds. Then Gwen would never be safe.

Supporting the Anodite's limp body against his chest and in the crook of one arm, he used the other hand to reach into his back pocket, wincing as his arm twisted in a pain-inducing way. A long, low whine escaped him as he pulled his arm back around, the feeling of knives in his skin ripping through his well-muscled arms.

The badge blinked in his palm. "Ben," he breathed, finding his voice as shattered as his body. "Ben, I need you now. Gwen's down and I'm hurt." A sad whimper escaped him as his legs gave way below him. "It was a bad idea to take her out on this mission. Just come get us. Fast. I don't know how Gwen's doing and I don't think I can keep this up much... longer." He stayed on the side of the road, his body crumpling over to one side into the desert's dust as he felt himself giving up. He held his badge until he couldn't get it in a good grasp any longer. "Please, Tennyson."

Kevin's consciousness slipped as the darkness enveloped him in a warm blanket, leaving him only with fierce pain in the blackened night.

When his obsidian eyes opened again, Ben was standing over him with a smug smile on his annoying little face. "Good to see you awake, Mr. Hotshot."

The first thing he managed to say was already easily seen in the ebony portals to his soul. "Where's Gwen?"

"I'm here," came her soft voice from the far side of the room, the redhead standing on shaky legs to get over to her boyfriend. She managed to get over to him with a weak smile sitting on her thin, pale pink lips. "As for you..."

Kevin smirked, already assuming the worst before anyone could tell him.

"Broke everything," snickered Ben. "I thought you said you could drive, Kevin?"

The Osmosian was still smirking as his exposed fingertips ran over the surface of whatever he was laying on. A thick sheet of armor covered him. He kept absorbing it until it was penetrating his pale skin and making him stronger and stronger.

"Kevin, you don't have to show off," scolded Ben as he stalked off, irritated that the dark teen had healed himself in practically seconds before standing up and holding onto Gwen as if she were the last person on Earth.

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**A/N: I thought another dramatic one was necessary. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!**

**~Sky**


	50. Gwen's Worst Nightmare

**A/N: I was trying to relax today, but I have to write eventually.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing at all.**

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Gwen bolted upright, running her fingers through her hair as she lay in her bed, rousing from the worst nightmare she could ever remember. The redhead immediately flipped on her bedside lamp and began to tug some clothes on her exposed body that was only covered with a thin tank top that was showing a bit too much and some fleece flannel pants that hung low on her hips. The girl switched her pajamas for a pair of ratty jeans and a nice black jacket that Ken had given to her years ago and headed out into the night, pulling her hood over her head as he teeth chattered in the darkness. The redhead grabbed her bike that was now years old and getting a bit too small for her long legs

The black road stretched out before her as she pedaled down the street as fast as she could, heading for the garage. Her body worked fiercely through the cold and through the faint light of the moon that shone down as she moved through the thickening darkness. She furiously rode, hoping Kevin was in his garage for the night. She had to talk with him.

It was something close to a half an hour later when her bike skidded to a cold, dead stop just outside of the garage, the gravel skittering out from under the thin rubber tires. She leapt of the bike, dropping it into the pile of tiny rocks before darting for the wide opening that still shone the fluorescent lights that held the garage's inner airspace.

"Kevin?" she asked, hoping to see his legs sticking out from beneath the green and black striped 1963 Chevy Camaro's under carriage. She saw the car and that was enough to make her throw herself on the hood and stroke the soft metals with her palm, soothing herself as she knew the car was still there.

And he came out of the back, wiping grease from his calloused hands with a dirty rag. "What is it?" he asked, seeing her petting the car like it was some kind of dog. "Somethin' wrong, Gwen?" The dark teen moved towards her, a somewhat puzzled expression touching his roguish features.

Her emerald orbs turned to focus in on him. A smile crept across her lips as she looked back to the car for a long moment, holding a touch of longing in her eyes. Then she looked back to her boyfriend. "Just had a nightmare." Her fingers ran across the car's metal hood, the feel of it smooth against her soft skin. "Just wanted to make sure it hadn't come true."

"Care to tell me what it was?" Kevin leaned against the side of the vehicle. "I'm always here to listen." He finished with the last of the grease that clung to his skin before tossing the cloth off towards the couch that he would sleep on later after her finished up the last of the work on the new ideas of some laser lances attached to the undercarriage so that he had some extra firepower when needed. "You can talk to me whenever you need to."

She touched the car, unwilling to break contact with it. "I dreamt that you sold your car." Her gaze found his obsidian orbs. "For a black one. Older. Banged up paint job. Convertible." She shuddered and she saw him do the same, a smile turning the corners of his lips. "It was hideous." Gwen wrapped her arms around her body for warmth, her hip still against her boyfriend's most prized possession. "It made me miss this thing. I wanted to make sure it was still here."

Kevin moved a little closer to her, his eyes glittering. "No worries, Gwen. It's like you." His lips touched hers as he leaned down to kiss her gently, his eyes alive with the passion for the younger redhead. "I won't ever let go of it."

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**A/N: ah, short, but perfect. I actually had this dream. God, the new car was hideous… please review. Thank you for reading.**

**~Sky**


	51. Credit Card

**A/N: Ha. Just needed some humor after last night... That was a killer episode.**

**Disclaimer: I own no part of this.**

Ben looked over to Kevin, jade eyes questioning.

"Oh god." Kevin knew that look all too well. And he hated it. It usually meant they were going to get into some random discussion over something trivial and entirely useless in the long run. It seemed to be happening more frequently when Gwen left them alone. "What is it, Tennyson?"

"Do you have a credit card?" asked Ben.

An eyebrow raised and then Kevin replied, "Uh... no." He put his hand back on the wheel of his beloved car as he watched the clock to see when they would have to go pick Gwen up from her karate class or lesson or whatever it was. "Why?"

"Because if you did have one, you could totally be some kind of ninja." A grin was spreading across Ben's face. "I know you can already pick locks with your powers and such, but a credit card is just one swipe and you're in." He eyed Kevin curiously. "And how do you pay for your gas, anyways?"

"There's this cool new thing, it's called 'cash'." Kevin rolled his deep obsidian eyes in Ben's general direction. He snorted and said, "Tennyson, a credit card ain't gonna make me any cooler than I already am." He leaned back in his seat a little more, his hands falling from the wheel to his knees. "And it couldn't even begin to salvage what little reputation you have left."

"But it makes life easier."

"And racks up bills," countered the dark teen, shifting the car into gear as he noticed the clock was slowly approaching the peak of the hour. He'd have to get Gwen from karate soon. "Just drop it, Benji." And the green and black striped Chevy Camaro pulled from the parking space it had been hiding in onto the open road.

"Well, you could get a flat-screen tv for the garage," continued the brunette teen; ideas had suddenly flooded his head with thousands of thoughts. "Or more alien tech!"

"Tech dealers only take cash, straight up." Kevin's eyes narrowed on the blacktopped road that stretched out in front of the vehicle's hood. "They don't do IOUs." He tugged the wheel towards the left, gliding the car around a sharp corner. "Think about it: Would you trust a con-artist to pay you back?" A smile pulled upwards at the corners of his lips.

Realizing what Kevin meant, Ben sank deeper into his seat, arms now folded across his chest. A single word passed his lips.

"Touche."

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**A/N: haha. Oh, i needed that... please review...**

**~Sky**


	52. Twinkie

**A/N: So I got my cousin on FanFiction now. His penname is Dimitri Evanson. Not quite capable of posting yet, but he's not exactly perfect with grammar and such…**

**Anyways, I'm back from Turkey Break and I am ready to write again! Yay! And with so much inspiration. Had a few weird dreams while I was there.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing at all.**

* * *

"Twinkie!" screeched Ben from the backseat, slugging an irritated Kevin who was perched in the driver's seat. Ben's fist slammed into the dark teen who immediately wrenched around, grabbed the jade-eyed boy's wrist with one hand, the other still on the wheel to keep the car on the black paved road.

The dark teen's obsidian eyes were grave as his face remained stoic. "What... the... heck?" he asked, voice a nearly feral snarl. His friend had just randomly punched him in the arm. And it had actually stunned him a bit. He hadn't prepared for anything stupid like that.

"I saw a Twinkie," said Ben, a stupid smirk on his face. He managed to pull his wrist from Kevin's iron grip.

A bit of confusion crossed Kevin's features. "A _what_?" asked the Osmosian, clearly puzzled beyond belief. He had never had someone punch him in his car before.

"It's like the Punch-Buggy game," explained Ben quickly, voice over-excited about this. "You know the Punch-Bug game, right?"

His eyes darkened a little further. Kevin quietly shook his head. "Nope."

Ben's jaw dropped. It would've dropped to the floor if he hadn't had skin and bones holding it in place. "Never?" he asked weakly.

Once more, the dark Osmosian shook his head. "What is it?" he asked, watching his friend in the rearview mirror. He had never really played car games. He was more of a solo kind of guy. Ben of all people should've known that.

Ben was amazed that a guy who loved cars so much wouldn't know about a car-based game. It just blew his mind that Kevin had never played the Punch-Buggy game. "Here's how it works," began the brunette Tennyson, "when you see a Punch-Buggy, you punch someone. And if you say, 'No punch back', they can't punch you back. It's pretty easy. And Twinkie is the same thing, but with a yellow car. Doesn't even have to be a Punch-Buggy or anything. Just yellow."

Kevin let out a long sigh before reaching back and slugging Ben right in the chest, knocking the brunette back into his seat with a slight "Umphf!". "Twinkie," he said, a smug grin hugging his lips.

"I said-"

"You didn't say anythin' about not punching you back," snickered Kevin. He relaxed in his seat and steered the car down the long road with one hand.

Ben bit his tongue. He kept his eyes out the window for an excuse to punch Kevin again. A small Punch-Bug rolled past the window. The brunette gave the raven-haired teen's bicep a nice hard slug. "Punch-Buggy, no punch back!" yelled Ben, pumping one fist into the air victoriously after hitting his friend.

Kevin, once more spooked by Ben's fist pounding into his arm, jumped in the seat and turned on the brunette, eyes blazing furiously with an inferno of pitch black. He still held the wheel and kept his beloved Camaro on the road. "DUDE!"

"You can't punch me back," said Ben with a smirk. He folded his arms across his chest. He had the rules on his side. He loved having the rules.

Kevin grimaced before ripping his phone out of his pocket and dialing up his girlfriend who had been left off this routine patrol for studying. But that had been hours ago and she was free now. "Gwen," he began as soon as she picked up, "could you paint Ben's car yellow with the cans in my garage and drive past us about twenty times? Apparently, I'm not allowed to hit him unless I see a yellow car."

Kevin hung up shortly after Gwen gave him a quiet answer. A grin was plastered across his face and his eyes glittered with that familiar devilish gleam in them.

Ben gulped down his suddenly rising fear. He had a bad feeling he'd be hit an awful lot very soon.

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**A/N: Review!**

**~Sky**


	53. Flat Tire

**A/N: I'M BACK! Hallelujah. Man, I missed writing and posting and my inbox is full of… everything. I'm kinda afraid to log in at this point ^.^"**

**Anyways, CAR ARGUMENT FOR Y'ALL!**

**Disclaimer: Own nothing, sorry!**

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Kevin ran his fingers through his long ebony locks. He stared at the black tire with the lack of air in it. All the others were perfect. But this one just happened to be flat. "Great," huffed the dark Osmosian.

Ben stuck his head out the window. "I think we got a flat," said the brunette Tennyson, a smile perched perfectly on his lips. "What do you think, Kev?"

Kevin's obsidian orbs flicked up to Ben's annoying face from the tire. "Well, it looks flat, it feels flat, so I'm pretty sure you got a flat, Benji.

There was a long pause. Then Ben said, "You gonna fix it for me, or what?"

Kevin's gaze found Ben again, this time holding a dark gleam of anger. "Dude, how many flats have you had this week?" asked the Levin boy, eyeing Ben suspiciously as if the brunette were capable of scheming something like this. "If I'm counting right, it's like the fifth or sixth..."

"Ninth," said Ben, a goofy grin plastered across his features. "So we can all tell that you're bad at counting." He knew his taunting would get to Kevin. And he enjoyed it. He enjoyed it almost as much as he enjoyed smoothies.

Kevin suppressed his growing rage. He quietly moved back to his own car to grab his spare tire to at least manage to get Ben back to the garage before replacing his replacement tire. It looked weird for him to have three tires with the Omnitrix symbol on 'em but then have one without. And for it to look identical to the other three tires of his best friend's car. "Let's just hurry up and get this over with. I gotta meet Gwen at Burger Shack." He trudged back towards his own beloved vehicle, popped the trunk, and rummaged through the masses of alien tech for a tire.

"Oh, she told me you were meeting at the garage."

"Whatever," huffed Kevin, hauling the spare tire and his banged up red toolbox back towards Ben's car. "I'll talk to her later. It doesn't matter right now." He got to work quickly, jacking Ben's car up so he could slip off the flat and stick the new one right on. "And if this is gonna happen a lot, I oughta start chargin' ya for all this. It's gettin' a little ridiculous."

The bearer of the Omnitrix just grinned maniacally, not bothering to even get out of the car and help his friend.

"You should probably keep a spare from now on, Benji. I'm gettin' sick of you usin' all of my tires." He pulled out the nuts and bolts before sliding the tire off of the axle and tossing it aside. "I only got like one spare left and it's back at the garage. And what am I gonna do if I get a flat?"

"You're the mechanic," Ben pointed out. "Don't start asking me all these hard questions. I wouldn't know." He sighed quietly and thrummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "You know what? We should totally go throw a party!"

Kevin had already begun putting on the new tire. "Did you fall off your rocker? Ben, it's, like, midnight. Which makes me wonder why you're drivin' around anyways..." He pulled out his wrench and started fastening bolts onto the new tire. "No way. I'm goin' to meet Gwen, then I'm drivin' her home and then I get to go sleep, got that? No parties. And don't you have finals or somethin' tomorrow."

"Sure, but since when have I cared as much as Gwen and Jules do?" remarked Ben, pointing a finger to Kevin. "Come on, guys night out. Partying! It'll be good. And isn't your birthday in like a couple weeks? We'll just celebrate early!"

"I'm gonna go see your cousin," said Kevin, rising and hauling the toolbox back to his own car, "and then I'm goin' home."

Kevin slammed the trunk of his own car shut and looked to the spot where Ben had been only minutes ago. And the car was gone, dust in the space where it had previously sat, as if Ben sped away. The dark teen breathed a long sigh and reached into his pocket for his phone to call his redheaded girlfriend with. It wasn't there.

Kevin, giving up for the night, figured he could just catch her at the garage if she hadn't already left. Dropping himself into the driver's seat, he shoved the keys in the ignition and revved the engine nice and loud. His fingers found the gearshift and he put it in drive. Kevin stepped down on the pedal and crept forward a few feet-

-before stopping. Because a tire had gone flat. "And I found my phone..."

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**A/N: Oh Kevin… Review please!**

**~Sky**


	54. Camera Mayhem

**A/N: After a frantic search for a notebook full of "Car Arguments" ideas, you guys get another car argument!**

**Disclaimer: I am plotting to ambush MOA's house by nightfall. Who wants to join me?**

* * *

Gwen had managed to smuggle a brand spanking new camera into the car. She wanted a picture of Kevin. Just a normal one. The one in her locket was fine, but she wanted one that she could actually frame and put on her bedside table. Something that she could keep close when she wasn't wearing her locket.

The reason she had to smuggle it in was because she had tried outright to get a picture of Kevin. By telling him first.

Her last camera got smashed to bits and all those bits were now either in the wheels of Kevin's car or littered about the Mr. Smoothy parking lot. And she had hated hearing Ben laugh at her over her smashed camera. And Kevin did feel guilty. Only after it was totally annihilated.

So discretely this time. Without the flash or anything. She just wanted a picture of him. That was all. Something so innocent. Yet, she should've expected it to be worse. Because here's what happened:

Gwen had gotten into his car like any other day. She had just slid in, buckled up, and smiled at him right before he gunned the engine. It was so normal. Except for the camera hidden in an inside pocket of her jacket.

He wouldn't expect a thing, now would he?

The redhead smiled as he gunned the engine like every other day. She sank into the seat as he drove his car through the blacktopped streets of Bellwood, the car practically flying over the streets. Gwen couldn't help but feel confident this would work.

"Hey, Kevin?"

His obsidian gaze flitted to her softly to look at her curious face. He didn't see the lens staring at him from the inside of her jacket. "Yeah?" He pulled the car around another hard turn, taking it towards the planetarium. He knew she loved the planetarium; it wasn't hard to decide that he would take her there for a date.

"Why don't you smile very often?"

A little smirk turned up the corner of his lips and he looked her way as the car screeched to a halt at a red light.

Gwen snapped the camera. It was close enough to a picture. He was smiling. That was all she needed. And he was looking at her with the smile on his face. That was what she wanted.

The only problem was the flash. It went off.

"Was that lightning?" asked Kevin, his gaze immediately flitting to the road and then to the sky. Gwen thought she could see worry flashing across his features. The girl was worried that he would catch on.

"Nope," said Gwen quickly, hoping not to set him off to the fact she had a camera. She didn't want another one destroyed. Her parents would be reluctant to give her money for a third one. "I don't think it was."

"Well then what was it?" he asked, his gaze once more flicking to her. Kevin wasn't stupid. He definitely wasn't oblivious either. He hadn't pieced it together yet, but he knew something was up with Gwen.

Her face was as red as a cardinal. She couldn't help but panic. Gwen quietly tried to discreetly tuck away her camera back into the inside pocket of her jacket. She didn't want Kevin to take it from her. And she didn't want him to smash it either. He had a bad habit of smashing things he didn't like. "I don't know," replied the girl lightly while trying to make it so that he didn't know about her camera.

"It was almost like a camera flash."

Gwen was about to jump out the car door. Too bad the darn thing always automatically locked itself when it was in drive. She plotted for a few seconds, wondering if she could put it into park, jump out, and run for her life.

"Gwen?"

"Yeah?" She knew her face was burning red and she knew he was probably onto him, but that didn't stop her from trying to keep it discreet. The camera was shoved in her pocket and she thought she was in the home stretch. She thought she was free.

A smile still lingered upon his lips. "Hand it over."

With a heavy sigh, Gwen reached for the camera out of her pocket and began to pull it out to place it in Kevin's hand that was waiting to take it from her. His palm was skyward, just waiting for her to fork over the camera he knew she was hiding from him.

Instead, Gwen's hand shot out without the camera and she grabbed the gearshift and pulled it into park, sending the car to a lurching stop in the middle of the road. Her other hand unlocked the car and she was immediately throwing herself out the door and running for her life, camera in hand and laughing maniacally. She had finally won.

Three days after she framed it, she found it smashed and the picture gone. Needless to say, she also found Kevin in the room chewing on paper.

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**A/N: I know they may be a bit OOC, but I find this hilarious. I see Gwen as determined enough to do some crazy stuff (out of love, might I add) and if Kevin hates pictures enough, he would definitely eat paper (not out of love ^.^). So review!**

**~Sky**


	55. Don't Destroy the Car

**A/N: This was actually supposed to be different, but it turned out like this and I am totally happy with it.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own.**

* * *

"Seriously, Tennyson, watch the car!" hissed Kevin through gritted teeth before he redirected his rage from his younger friend to the leftover DNAliens that the Highbreeds had forgotten to take off Earth with them. There had been a whole hive of them hiding yet. Kevin had really grown to hate the little buggers. "That's the second time you've nearly smashed it in the past five minutes!"

"Trying," huffed Ben in his favorite form, the giant orange dinosaur-like creature that he had dubbed as Humungousaur. He shifted so that he wasn't about to fall right on top of the green and black striped vehicle. "It's not like a hive of these buzzards makes it easy."

"Focus," growled Gwen as another ball of DNAlien gunk splattered against her shield. She recoiled in disgust. The redhead couldn't wait to get rid of the last of these things. They were utterly hideous and gross beyond description. "I have karate in the morning and these guys aren't helping me get any beauty sleep."

A smirk crossed Kevin's features as his fist collided with the skull of a DNAlien. Or at least he hoped it was the skull if they even had any. "Not like you need it, Gwen," he commented lightly before leaping over the heads of the yellow-skinned creatures and pounding his fist into he ground. The rock went through something of a ripple and some of the grotesque monsters went flying into the air.

"Kevin, you're so sweet," she said, corners of her lips tugging up as a few of the nasty beings soared over her head. Then her emerald eyes turned serious and the mana at her hands swirled faster and turned a darker shade of pinkish violet. "Now really, let's finish this. I'm tired."

Ben nodded in his cousin's direction to signal that he had heard her. He let out a fierce, rumbling roar that seemed to shake the earth as well as the sky. Then he went on a rampage, stomping and smacking anything in his way. Aliens were beneath his feet and his hands smacked many of them aside. A few of them even smacked into some hard metal that-

"Really?" asked Kevin, voice clearly caught between annoyed and disbelieving. "You're using them to hit my car?" His tone got higher on the end as he stared at his beloved vehicle. His eyes pouted as his lower lip quivered lightly. Kevin's ears picked up the sound of someone approaching, and, without a second thought, he slammed his fist into the body of a DNAlien that had tried to sneak up on him. The creature crumpled to the ground. "Can't we leave the poor thing alone? It's already been blasted to bits three times this week!"

"Sorry, sorry," mumbled Ben, his eyes flitting to the car to check for dents. He was lucky. There were none. As a bonus, the paint job seemed to be intact still. So far, Kevin wasn't going to kill him. "Don't worry. I'll be careful."

"Mhm," said Kevin, tone betraying how much he believed that. "That's what you said the last three times." His obsidian eyes fired daggers in the direction of the Ultimatrix wearer. Then his feet slammed into the face of a DNAlien. "This time, I'm hopin' you mean it, Benji."

"I do!" Ben was upset Kevin had so little faith in him. His tail slapped a few of the misshapen monsters into the blackened sky lit only by the faint light of the glistening moon. Stars trailed through the dark night. The fight had been going on for long enough that even Ben was getting sick of it.

"Seriously?" asked the Tennyson girl as her eyes flitted to the two boys. "You guys are talking about the car? Still?" Another shield went up as the last one was covered in too much goop to see through. The Anodite let out a long sigh as the boys continued to talk.

"Sure, you do." Kevin's words dripped with sarcasm. He felt a clawed hand on his stone-covered skin; he spun, hand nailing the beast right in the face.

Ben growled. It was mostly directed to Kevin, but it freaked out enough of the DNAliens to either drop and beg for mercy or flee in terror, shrieks erupting from them.

When she deemed it was clear and once the boys had shut up, Gwen headed for the car, exhaustion finally possessing her tired body. The girl crashed in the passenger seat. She sank into the seat, finding the leather immensely comfortable after such a long day. Her eyes fluttered shut; her eyelids had felt so heavy. She could rest. For a few seconds at least...

It was about five minutes later when Kevin and Ben got in. Both slammed the doors behind them. "You weren't careful at all. Do you not understand how much this car is worth? The parts are over thirty years old!" came the dark teen's scolding voice. "It's insanely expensive to repair and find new parts for, Tennyson."

"I was being careful," defended Ben. "I was just focusing on ending it quickly for Gwen. She said she wanted to get home." His jade eyes flickered to his cousin who was curled up in the passenger seat, eyes shut and arms folded across her chest to keep herself warm. "Is she...?"

"She's got karate in the morning," breathed Kevin as he shoved the metal key into the ignition and let the engine rev up, purring like a well-muscled jungle cat. "She needed to sleep." He threw a gentle, loving gaze in her direction, unable to keep himself from thinking how adorable she looked. Kevin loved being able to see her eyes, but she looked too gorgeous when she was out cold.

"That doesn't mean-"

"Hush," whispered Kevin fiercely. His eyes threw darts in Ben's general direction. A bit of aggression bubbled in his veins and he had to grip the wheel a little tighter. The Osmosian's knuckles turned white. He didn't want anyone to disturb his red-haired beauty. "Let her sleep, Benji."

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**A/N: Ah, I like how it turned out. Review if you love how cute Gwevin is!**

**~Sky**


	56. Devouring Flames

**A/N: Just gonna get a little bit done today. Hopefully I'll get something up before the power goes out. Stupid blizzards…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own a single thing of Ben 10.**

* * *

It was a short break. For the three Plumber kids, it was a relief to finally take a pause from the action of working non-stop for three days straight. Kevin hadn't needed much sleep with his usual sleepless habits just helping him keep awake. He had been ready the whole time for anything while the Tennysons had had to take periodic breaks.

This break was long. So far, they'd been at Mr. Smoothy for a whole half hour and not a single call had come in for another sight of alien activity. For once, their frayed nerves were calmed and they could at least close their eyes and feel at peace with the situation.

"This is chaos," commented Ben, sitting on one side of the metal table that was set outside of the Mr. Smoothy shack. "How many aliens can be attacking Earth at once?"

"A lot," huffed the red-haired girl that sat beside him. She sipped on a blueberry smoothie while eyeing her boyfriend who was across the table with his back turned to the car that was pulled neatly into a spot in the parking lot. "I'm just wondering how the heck they're coordinating this so that we're constantly busy."

"Or it's just sporadic," noted Ben, dutifully sucking honey, tangerine, and guava goop out of the smiling cup through the narrow red bendy straw that poked out of the lid. "Not all aliens are intelligent life forms, Gwen." A scheming smile tugged the corners of his lips upwards. "I mean, just look at Kevin."

The Osmosian's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he just tossed the smoothie cup over his shoulder. "You know what? I'm going to Burger Shack. This place sucks." He stood up and shoved the Plumber's badge that he had put on the table into his pocket. "Anyone with me?"

"I'll stay here to keep an eye on Ben," said Gwen, giving her beloved boyfriend a half smile. "You go."

"'kay," was Kevin response as he fished his keys out of his pocket. The dark teen's face twisted up as he couldn't find them.

It was ten seconds later after he remembered they were in his back pocket that a small explosion rocked the little area around the shack that was Mr. Smoothy.

Gwen and Ben's eyes widened, each staring with horrified expressions at the source of the explosion. Gwen's facial features were coated over with worry whereas Ben's eyes were twinkling with delight and the tiniest bit of humor.

Kevin could easily read their faces like open books. He had spent far too much time with the Tennyson cousins. "They blew up the car, didn't they?"

Gwen nodded.

Ben, instead of responding with actual words, spluttered out a sudden laugh and began banging a fist on the table, the giggling engulfing his entire body. He couldn't help but shake and shudder with the chuckling and snickering that possessed him to the point of falling off the bench that was pressed to one side of the table.

Behind the Osmosian teen, the car was being devoured by flames that licked and ate away at the beautiful green and black painted metal. The shattered glass glittered in the glow of the dying sunset. The whole thing was disturbingly beautiful, the flames lapping at the brilliant metal and the tires, eating away at the seats inside as the hood crumpled and bent beneath such high heats.

Kevin just sat back down calmly and put his chin in his hand. "Guess I'm not going to Burger Shack after all," he sighed, a low growl lingering on the edge of his voice.

Gwen wasn't sure whether to be solemn with the situation or to smile at his remark.

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**A/N: This was what was supposed to happen in the last chapter, but it morphed to fluff… so yeah. Anyways, please review!**

**~Sky**


	57. Tidbits 3

**A/N: I decided it was TIDBITS TIME!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10.**

* * *

K- Kevin  
B- Ben  
J- Julie  
G- Gwen

* * *

K- "If I ruled the world, we'd ride everywhere in jets."

B- "If I ruled the world, I'd make everybody own a unicorn."

G- "If I ruled the world, I would just be grateful that neither of you ruled the world."

* * *

B- "So if you crossed a leopard and a sheep-"

K- "You'd get a shepherd."

G- "That's dumb."

K- "No, Ben's dumb."

* * *

K- "Dude, what time is it?"

B- "_I_ wear an Ultimatrix. _You_ wear a watch."

K- "…that doesn't mean I'm wearing it or that I got it legally."

* * *

K- "I'm immune to sirens."

B- "Really?'

K- "Uh-huh."

* * *

J- "Ben, you should stop driving."

B- "Why?"

J- "Can you not hear the sirens behind us?"

B- "I was trying to be Kevin… Apparently, he says he's become immune to the sound of sirens."

* * *

G- "Why do you have such an automatic response for everything?"

K- "Penguin."

G- "Of course. It's penguin. Go figure."

* * *

K- "Look, I drew you a picture of a cow eating some grass."

G- "This paper's blank."

K- "I know."

G- "Where's the grass?"

K- "The cow ate it all."

G- "Where's the cow?"

K- "It left because there's no more grass."

* * *

B- "I still don't know what you see in Kevin."

G- "I see a guy that's not you."

B- "What do I have to do with anything?"

G- "I've been stuck living with you for too long."

* * *

B- "I think I'll start shaving."

K- "Shaving what?"

* * *

K- "I love you."

G- "Prove it. Scream it to the world."

K- *whispers* "I love you."

G- "Why'd you whisper?"

K- "You are my world."

* * *

K- "Did I tell you guys what happened when I got pulled over that one time?"

B- "Which time?"

* * *

K- "So I got pulled over one time-"

G- "_One_ time?"

* * *

K- "Since neither Tennyson is gonna let me finish my story, I'll tell you instead."

J- "…"

K- "So I got pulled over this one time and I asked the cop if I could update my Facebook status and he didn't let me…"

* * *

B- "Have I told you how much I love you?"

J- "No…"

K- "He is incapable of love."

G- "Quit picking on Ben, Kevin."

B- "Quit being so mean to me!"

J- "…"

* * *

B- "Do you think Azmuth would let me create a new alien?"

G- "Is that even possible?"

K- "I didn't even think the Omnitrix was possible…"

* * *

B- "I remember back when I was a kid and I officially decided that I didn't believe in aliens."

G- "And?"

B- "Two days later, a stupid pod fell out of the sky."

K- "Karma bites."

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**A/N: Review!**

**~Sky**


	58. License Plates

**A/N: So here's this. I just kind of came up with it…**

**Disclaimer: Doesn't own Ben 10.**

* * *

Gwen noticed something strange about the car one day as she sat in the garage like she did for most of the time she spent with her boyfriend.

"Kevin?" she asked, still staring at the Chevy Camaro like she couldn't believe it herself. Mostly because she couldn't. Part of her was amazed that she hadn't noticed it before and the other part of her was screaming questions about it. How had no one noticed this before? Between her and her cousin and her boyfriend, someone probably should've picked it up over the years they had been hanging out together.

"Hmm?" His response came after a few moments of quiet delay as he rolled out from beneath the undercarriage of the green and black muscle car. He pulled a dirty rag from out of his pocket and began to wipe the grease from his chiseled features. He succeeded in smearing around the black fluid.

"Why does your car not have license plates?"

Kevin raised an eyebrow and blinked repeatedly as if he had just been hit with a stun gun. Then his head swiveled a bit to look at the car. His usually emotionless eyes glittered with a new light in them. "It doesn't?" he asked, sounding truly dumbfounded by this single fact. He kept looking at the car, infatuated by the thought of not having license plates on his car for so long. And all the times he got pulled over and none of the cops noticed...

"No, it doesn't," said Gwen, a quiet smile creeping upon her usually stoic features. "Did you not know that?" She was surprised by his surprise. It almost made her ask how he hadn't noticed. It was something so blatantly obvious that she wished she had realized it sooner herself. It made the redhead feel incredibly stupid.

"I did not know that..." He kept staring at the car with his brilliantly dark eyes that shone like ebony suns. "How did I get past the cops so many times without a license plate?"

Gwen shrugged despite the fact that she knew it was a rhetorical question.

"I mean, you know my record with red lights and speed limits, but I haven't had license plates for two years and no one caught it?" Kevin kept on blinking and ran a calloused hand through his fine locks of ebony black. "Someone prob'ly should've noticed by now..."

"Here's my opinion," began Gwen quietly as her boyfriend's puzzle features swung to look at his favorite auburn-haired Anodite. "How would someone call in that this person doesn't have a license plate if-"

"If I don't have a license plate," finished Kevin, his thoughts nearly synced with hers after almost two years of being together. "Got it. It's dumb, but I got it." The corners of his lips leapt skyward as he smiled stupidly. "So where do I get license plates and how can I get 'em to say 'Kevin 11'?"

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**A/N: Okay, so there's that. I wish I had made it longer, but I didn't really see a point… So just review and thanks for reading!**

**~Sky**


	59. Fork as a Weapon

**A/N: I decided to have another Car Argument. Haha. I like this one a lot more than some of my others. Why, you ask? Because it's AN ACTUAL ARGUMENT!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 in any way whatsoever.**

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"Forks are a totally legit weapon," insisted Kevin, his hand tight on the wheel. "It's easily capable of killing!"

The redhead and her brunette cousin had been listening to this rant for a little under an hour and neither believed the facts that Kevin presented for them, all on forks and how they were potentially fatal weapons. The Osmosian was dead set on proving that forks were dangerous enough to be called a weapon. He was serious beyond belief.

"Kev," began the girl, flipping some of her red locks over one confidently raised shoulder, "forks are not weapons. Understand?" Gwen knew she was right and that was what bothered her the most. She was so eager to prove Kevin wrong that she was ready to just throw him out of his car if he didn't shut up soon. "They're utensils for eating, not used for mass destruction."

"Gwen Gwen Gwen," said the Osmosian, soda in hand as the three sat within the green and black vehicle just outside of the infamous Burger Shack that Kevin loved so dearly, "you clearly haven't seen what some guys do with it outside of our solar system. You need to keep an open mind." He tapped his skull with one finger and nodded smugly. "I've seen multiple bodies mutilated with just forks alone."

This made Ben's eyes widen in the backseat. "How does that work?" asked the brunette teen in the backseat with a bit of surprise spreading across his now excited features. "They're forks!"

"Well," started Kevin with an especially devilish smile, "some like to pack a catapult with forks and fire it at the enemy. That works pretty good. Bodies get mutilated nicely with the aerodynamics of the forks." The dark teen took one calloused hand off the wheel and held it parallel to the road and dove it into the dashboard of the car as a demonstration. "And you'd be amazed how many fights there are over food on some poorer planets. Use a fork 'cause it's the best thing you got and you might get killed or you might get an extra breadcrumb."

Gwen's eyes widened for a moment. She had never thought of people fighting over food with forks. That was definitely a more likely possibility than the catapult that Kevin had mentioned. "Seriously?"

Kevin nodded, saying, "Been there, tried that, not plannin' on heading back any time soon. And, I have learned to keep money on hand at all times."

"But there's no way forks are considered weapons," said Ben from the backseat, folding his arms across his chest with an indignant "harrumpf". "By law or anything, I mean. The government can't take away forks. They're used for eating, not as weapons."

"Not by everyone," pointed out Kevin as he sank into the driver's seat a bit more. "Here, Gwen, get me my fork out of the glove compartment."

The redhead raised an eyebrow in her boyfriend's direction. "What?" she asked, words nearly spluttering as she tried to muster the idea of Kevin keeping a fork in his glove compartment. "You have a fork in your glove compartment?" Her voice was a mix between high-pitched disbelief and confused anger.

Kevin nodded coolly, his eyes glimmering with the amusement of seeing Gwen confused. She was always funny when she was confused. "Yes, I do have a fork in my glove compartment."

"Why?" asked Ben, giggling in the backseat as he toppled over to one side. Kevin had a fork in his glove compartment. For the bearer of the Ultimatrix, that had to be the funniest thing he had heard since the refrigerator joke that Kevin had told him. "Why would you have a stupid fork in your glove compartment?"

With a small shrug, Kevin watched his girlfriend as she opened up the glove compartment with one delicate hand and pulled out the small metal utensil from within, a faint smile pressed to her thin lips. "I just figured that if my car does happen to get infiltrated, despite all the alien tech and everything, I should keep a weapon on hand, you know? A safety precaution."

"I would recommend a laser or a dagger or a boomerang even," said Gwen, eyes narrowing slightly in the Osmosian's direction, "but definitely not a fork, Kev." The girl handed him his supposed "weapon".

"Would you like to see me demonstrate my amazing ninja moves with this fork?" asked the dark teen, obsidian eyes glimmering with the idea of showing off in front of Gwen. He liked showing off in front of girls, but especially in front of his beloved redhead. "You should know that it is one of the most technological weapons of our time."

Ben had fallen onto the floor of the backseat at that point. If he had been drinking a smoothie or snacking on chili fries, something would've come out of his nose at that point.

"_Sure_ it is," said Gwen, her eyes watching her boyfriend as he began to play with the fork, twirling it like the color guard at her school would. And he was actually making it look like a small ninja sword or something of the likes.

At least until it slipped from between his fingers and stabbed the windshield. "Really?" asked Kevin, staring at the fork in complete disgust. "Seriously? Did that actually just do that to my poor car?"

Gwen was laughing as hard as Ben now, unable to hide the giggles that had racked her body like a bad cold. She just couldn't help herself. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she snickered, trying to tame her giggling and failing miserably. "A fork is a weapon."

Kevin scowled at her, once more picking up his soda and drinking it, upset that the fork had stabbed his windshield and had left more than a few cracks in it. "Stupid fork…" he muttered under his breath.

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**A/N: Alright, now it's rumor patrol time. Next episode: "The Big Story". Has something about Albedo and Azmuth. I didn't catch the full summary. Found it kind of unimportant. The one after that though, GWEN AND JULIE ARE GOING TO ANODYNE! WHHHAAAA? And that's your Ben 10 rumor patrol. So review!**

**~Sky**


	60. Submersible

**A/N: So… yeah. Haha.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own.**

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"Who wants to go with me to test out my car?"

It wasn't just Kevin's sudden appearance that surprised the Tennyson teens. It was the fact that Kevin was asking them to go with him to do car stuff. _Car_ stuff. They never got invited to do car stuff. Especially not Ben. Not with his track record of destroying the poor Camaro.

Gwen raised an eyebrow to express her confusion. Her emerald gaze strayed from the long novel she was reading to her boyfriend's face.

Ben was the first of the cousins to speak up. "Are you serious?"

"Totally," said the Osmosian with a grin. "I was just messin' with some of my tech and I managed to make it submersible." His obsidian orbs danced with delight at the thought of finally being able to use his car like a submarine. He had already built it so that it could function as a smaller version of his jet with less aerodynamics, but now he wanted to be able to take it under the water.

Ben was automatically jumping up off of his bed from where he had been doing his homework and tossed a large Chemistry textbook aside. "I'm in!" he said eagerly, bounding to his best friend who stood in the bedroom's doorway.

Gwen had to take this in for a moment. She rethought his earlier words and let her mind drink in all the information she had on this. "Test?" she questioned, quoting what he had said when he had popped out of nowhere and appeared just outside of the room.

Kevin nodded quickly while a skittish Ben pranced like a bunny on steroids beside him. "Yup," said the mechanic as he stuck one hand in his pocket. "I made it submersible and now we gotta test it."

"Are you coming?" asked Ben, sounding as if he had just eaten a whole tube of the massive Pixy Stix sugar. "You have to come! It'll be fun!"

Gwen wanted to explain to her brunette cousin that Kevin had no idea what he was doing in making his car an underwater vehicle, but she knew she'd hurt her beloved boyfriend's feelings. And she didn't want to do that. She cared about him too much to hurt his feelings. So instead, the redhead quickly said, "I just don't think Kevin needs a submarine."

"I totally need a submarine!" argued the Osmosian. "Remember what happened on Pisces?"

Gwen bit her tongue. Kevin did have a point. That didn't mean she had to like it. "But how do you know this is going to work?" asked Gwen, still not wanting to undermine his mechanical skills. She just didn't want anyone driving that car into a lake or the ocean or something ridiculous.

"I threw some buckets of water at it and the inside wasn't wet when I checked," stated Kevin confidently, arms folding across his chest after his hand was retracted from it's position in his pocket. "I tested it mostly and now for the real thing."

"Mostly," noted Gwen, giving Kevin her signature 'You're doing something stupid again' look that she had had mastered for years now since her cousin had always been prone to doing stupid things too. "How do you know if it'll stand up to the water pressure?"

"Insulated it heavily and reinforced the metal with two more layers of heavy aluminum. And I gave the glass another coat or two of stuff that'll keep it from shattering." He gave his favorite Tennyson a cocky grin. "Come on, Gwen. Have a little faith in me. I'm not stupid."

A little giggle came from Ben and it only took Kevin a second to kick backwards without even turning around and send Ben crumpling to the floor.

Again, Gwen raised an eyebrow. She eyed her cousin who was now doubled over on the ground.

"He got on my nerves. That wasn't something stupid."

With a little huff, the auburn-maned girl rose from her chair after reluctantly shutting her book. "I'll trust you. That, and if you two get in trouble, someone's going to have to get you out of it."

"Let's go!" said Kevin, immediately storming off and out of Benji's house to go to his car that was parked outside.

Gwen looked down at her cousin as she passed him. He was moaning a little bit and she could pretty much figure where Kevin had kicked him. "Shouldn't have messed with him," sighed Gwen before reaching down with one hand to grab Ben's jacket collar and haul him off towards the car where she knew Kevin would be impatiently waiting.

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**A/N: Short, but I didn't feel like I needed anything too horribly long for this idea. And no, Chapter 29 doesn't directly correlate to this because of time period and team dynamics and some other stuff. But feel free to enjoy it again anyways! AND REVIEW!**

**~Sky**


	61. Driving Off

**A/N: PEACE AT LAST! Time to get to work before I actually have to do homework over Spring Break…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything at all. Quit making me write these.**

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"No, Benji, I'm driving," insisted the Levin boy who had his keys in hand and was already standing defensively by the driver side door. "We're already by my car, and we have to get movin' before the Forever Knights get away. They've prob'ly already gotten over to the next block!"

Ben was standing towards the rear of the Chevy Camaro. "Man, my car is like ten feet away. Are you too lazy to walk ten feet to my car?" The brunette teen folded his arms across his chest and gave the dark teen a "you're such a wuss" glare.

"No," retorted Kevin. His eyes were narrowed at the smaller teen. "I just know that my car is faster anyways, remember?" A small smirk perched itself upon his thin lips. "Let's just go already. We're losin' ground by arguin' about this! Just get in my car and-"

"I wanna take my car!" whined Ben, stamping one foot and glaring at Kevin while puffing out a pouting lip. "Just walk ten feet and we'll go, Kevin. You don't have to be so stubborn all the time!"

"Yeah, I do. Now get in my car and we'll go chase down those metalheads." Kevin had opened up the driver's door. He had his hand on the top of the door and was about ready to get in when Ben made another smart remark.

"Says the metalhead himself."

Kevin was about ready to bust the kid a new butt. He was prepared to knock his buddy's block off. Maybe Ben's head would get to the Forever Knights faster than Kevin's car would if the Osmosian hit the brunette Tennyson's head off. "Ben…" His tone was clearly threatening.

There was a moment where Ben was actually afraid. Then he pouted a little bit more, taking a step towards his car. "I wanna drive."

Kevin groaned, looking to his redhead for some help in the situation. But the girl was completely impassive on the subject, just standing there and tapping one foot, clearly bored and tired of waiting for the two to just make up their minds and get a move on. "Gwen, make him get in the car."

"Kevin, just get in my car and we'll be fine," insisted Ben, clearly determined to get his way. He didn't like being told what to do and he especially hated it when it was Kevin who was making the demands. Kevin was always so irritating for the brunette teen. "We're losing ground."

Gwen was about to lose her last nerve. Her patience was like a ticking time bomb, running out quickly. The girl was about ready to explode and whack both boys over the head with mana in the form of a baseball bat. That would get them to start moving. "Why don't you each take your own car? I'll just ride with Kevin," she offered. The redhead only wanted to go catch up to the Forever Knights before they got away with the stolen tech from the warehouse.

"No." Each boy was automatically snapping. They wanted to drive, but they wanted to be in the same car. Gwen still wasn't sure why, but she knew she had to get them moving before they lost the Forever Knights altogether.

And the boys' arguing resumed. "Ben, I'm going to drive and you will get in my car, got it?"

"No. _You_ will get in my car and _I_ will drive us to the Forever Knights."

"Ben, you're stupid. I'm driving. Now get in my car."

"It's ten feet!"

"It's right here!"

It only took two seconds for Gwen to snatch the keys to the green and black muscle car from her boyfriend's hands. Then she pushed the Osmosian out of the way of the door and dropped into the driver's seat.

"Gwe-" Kevin's sentence was cut off by the growl of the engine as Gwen jabbed the keys into the ignition and started up the vehicle. It only took her a second to slide the seatbelt across her body and kick the car into gear.

"Is she really-" Ben couldn't even finish his question.

Gwen put the car into drive and let the wheels rip across the blacktopped street, driving quickly to catch up to the Forever Knights who had nearly gotten away because of the boys' arguing over who would drive them in their chase. She wasn't about to let the bad guys get away.

Ben and Kevin were left staring after her, the dust of the car's wheels on the road kicked up into their faces, leaving them in a cloud of gravelly grime.

"Good to see whose car you like better!" yelled Ben as he glared after his cousin.

Kevin snatched the keys from Ben and vaulted over the hood of the Mark 10 to get into the driver's seat. He wasn't going to wait until Ben got in. If the brunette boy took too long, Kevin was driving off without him.

The bearer of the Ultimatrix was still staring after the team's redhead. "Good to see that I won't be giving you a ride for the next month! Good to see what family means to you!"

A few seconds later, he was standing in a mist of powder that the wheels of his own car had thrown at him. "I HATE YOU, KEVIN!"

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**A/N: Hehe. Review please.**

**~Sky**


	62. Team Rules

**A/N: Well, this one began in my Engineering class, continued on my iPod Touch, and was finished on a computer. Well wasn't today fun?**

**Also, just thought I'd tell you guys that my reviews are now done on YouTube with Kasta. Find the link on my profile page if you wanna listen to 'em.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10. BEN 10 WEEK!**

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"I think we should come up with team guidelines."

As if Kevin wasn't already having a bad enough time in the backseat, Ben was taking that opportunity of control he had over the older teen and his cousin to make a point about his leadership. This made Kevin want to bang his head into the window. Repeatedly. "Benji, not-"

"Good idea," said Gwen, knowing what he meant. Recently, Kevin had been acting up again, brokering a few deals here and there. She looked over her shoulder to see Kevin slouched over with his arms folded across his broad chest. His locks of sleek ebony were hanging down into his obsidian eyes. "Shat do you suggest?"

Yes, Kevin was in the doghouse with his teammates. He was the unlucky mutt to have gotten on the bad side of his masters. The Osmosian was hating every second of it. Suddenly, the world kind of sucked. When things weren't going his way and he didn't get what he wanted, Kevin moped. He was very good at looking pitiful.

They'd been together for what, two years maybe? The team was more like family than a team. It was just how the distinctive roles had filled out on the social pyramid. All of them fit into one rank or place and they had never really needed team guidelines because of this perfect structure that they had going. Team guidelines had never been necessary.

"We should set up communication protocols-"

It was the first sentence and Kevin was already groaning.

"-and set up some team norms-"

Kevin was already trying to talk over Ben. "Dude, we can just make some rules later when people aren't mad at me-"

But Ben was louder. "-and make consequences for those who don't follow the rules."

The Osmosian on the backseat immediately went silent, dark hair covering his dark eyes. Kevin was pouting, but he wasn't going to complain aloud. Certain consequences would drive him to the brink.

"Shall we brainstorm our norms?" The way Gwen said it made it sound almost like it had been read directly off of a script. Of course, she and Ben had been toying with the idea of setting up rules to keep each other in line, but these rules were mainly focused on Kevin's recent insubordination. They didn't want him getting in trouble anymore. They'd put too much work into him to watch him drift away from all those hopes they had for him. Mostly Gwen, but Ben was trying to keep his best friend off the streets again.

Kevin kept his sulking going, arms folded tightly across his chest, the muscles in his biceps rippling with tension. The boy silently sat there, trying not to make eye contact, trying not to get himself in trouble.

"Well, we should definitely start out with the rule that there shouldn't be any dealings with any enemies-" Ben's bright jade gaze caught the rearview mirror that he watched Kevin in as the dark teen sat in his brooding mood in the backseat. "-without consulting the others first." He led the car around a corner with a light tug on the wheel. "And no one is allowed to go on any official Plumber duties or any unofficial missions without at least one partner unless told otherwise." The leader of the team had felt the need to put that one out there so he knew the other two would be safe when he wasn't always able to make it somewhere. Kevin and Gwen both had tendencies to run off and try to accomplish missions on their own.

"Agreed." Gwen's voice was completely serious. She was even watching over her shoulder to see Kevin's reaction. All she saw from him was that stoned stillness that was as silent as ever. "And how about no disappearing for days at a time?"

"Keep in contact with others at least once a day unless instructed otherwise," Ben confirmed. His jade eyes kept flitting to watch Kevin's reaction. The dark teen didn't react. At all. He was completely unresponsive. "The only reason otherwise would be an undercover mission. Which we won't be doing unless getting direct orders from the Plumbers."

"Good." Gwen shifted in the passenger seat. Her gaze cast over to her cousin who was still driving the car quickly through the streets towards the south side of Bellwood where he would have to drop off the Osmosian.

"Also, no new technology. At all." Ben felt the need to make that one specifically clear. He didn't want Kevin doing anything stupid. As if he didn't do anything stupid enough to begin with…

"No running off without a good reason."

"Always check your phone."

"Never forget about a mission and stray your teammates."

"And how about we make a rule that you guys trust me?" It was the first time that Kevin had actually spoken up for himself. He was still slouched in the backseat with his arms folded tightly across his chest. His dark hair still hung in his dark eyes.

Ben's lips formed a light scowl on his features. "You-"

"Tagged the equipment I traded to the Forever Knights so I can trace 'em." Kevin wasn't about to look up at his teammates. They were too disgusted with him. He hated how they looked at him like he was a lesser being. "I'm not stupid."

The two Tennysons were quiet for a long moment, drinking in this information. They had to take a few minutes to compute it all before they could fully take in this new concept of Kevin doing bad because he was actually doing good. Well, he had done it before…

Gwen was the first to speak up, emerald orbs looking over one shoulder. "We're sorry, Kevin. You should've told us." The girl couldn't put enough forgiveness into her facial features. She suddenly felt guilty for treating him the way she had. The girl fingered the tip of her crimson ponytail. "We can't read your mind. We don't always know what you're thinking."

"Well, I was planning on bringing back some big technology that would give my jet better hyperspace capabilities so that we'd be able to get farther faster instead of being trapped within a certain speed limit since my hyperspace boom shields aren't as strong as I want 'em to be." Kevin looked up at the red-haired girl. His dark eyes were looking over her expression, drinking it in.

Ben had to blink repeatedly. "You lost me…"

"I wish I knew what you said," added Gwen. Her orbs of jade were still watching her boyfriend as he sat in the back seat and sulked. "You can be a technological genius half the time-"

"And the other half, you're just ignorant," pointed out Ben.

"Wow, it's like I'm both of you combined, but more annoying." Kevin shifted a little bit in the backseat. He hated the backseat. He really, really hated the backseat, but he was there because no one had wanted him to take his own car and risk him driving off to some other deal. "You still gonna enforce all these rules?"

Benji automatically shook his head. "Well, we'll work on this later," said the Tennyson hero. "We've got to stop Vulkanus from blowing up the world again."

Kevin unbuckled and pulled himself out of his slumped position in the leather-covered backseat as the two Tennysons were slowly getting out of the car after it was put into park. "Man, that guy's really gotta get a grip on this whole 'blow up the world' plot he's got goin'."

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**A/N: It started out better than it ended… Anyways, I always love reading reviews! So write one!**

**~Sky**


	63. To Help Her

**A/N: Short, but I think I got what I wanted into it. I'm happy with it.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing at all.  
****Warning: This one can be rated as a low T or high K+, however you want to look at it.**

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He always hated to see her upset. There was never a moment in his life that he would ever like seeing tears stream down her face. Never. He had a cruel heart for some things, but watching her cry had a tendency to soften his hard outer shell and make him recall his defenses, the walls of the tough guy act going down. That was when he was exposed.

She was a wreck. Gwendolyn Tennyson was a genuine mess, her eyes bloodshot with hot, stinging tears and her face as red as the lapping flames of a fire. All the crying had gotten the blood to rush into her normally pale cheeks, turning them nearly the same shade of pink as her mana.

The news had been received the hard way. Of course, the girl's careless parents had been heartless enough to tell her that her brother had been in an accident. She had barely walked in the door with her raven-haired boyfriend behind her when her mother was already telling her that Ken had been killed by a drunk driver.

There had been that brief moment of shock and silence before it really settled with the two teenagers.

Kevin had become closer with Kenny than most boyfriends could without getting their faces pounded in. Kevin had nearly gotten to the point where he wanted to call Kenneth Tennyson his own brother, not just that of his beloved redhead.

But he hadn't been hit nearly as hard as Gwen had been.

The news was like taking a bullet to the chest but narrowly missing the heart. The pain was excruciating, the anger and rage flooding through her blood-filled veins. She wasn't just mad. She was upset, devastated, crushed. Ken had been the best brother ever. The Awesomemobile, Ben's first soccer practice, yelling at him all those times to stop playing his guitar so loud. Memories flashed through her mind at the speed of light. She knew all these things about the boy who had raised her alongside of her parents, Kenny, her big brother, her only brother. There were times he had been her only friend.

Kevin had had to pull the black and green muscle car to the side of the road and really look at his Anodite.

She really did look like she had been shot. Her face was scrunched up as she tried to hold back tears that wouldn't stop flowing. Her emerald eyes had become the two colors of Christmas, red and green; the red was provided from the hours of crying. Her shirt was rumpled and parts were soaked with the circles of moisture that had been induced by heavy falling tears. She only wanted her brother back... The pain in her chest was so raw that she was finding it hard to take a breath. It was like she couldn't find a reason to live without her brother there. Her face was puffy, eyes almost looking like they were swollen.

Despite his not wanting to break the car's silence, Kevin spoke up out of concern and love. "Are you gonna be alright?" He tried to keep his voice strong for her. He was feeling a little shaken himself, but he knew he had to put on his bravest face for the Anodite. He had to be strong. For her.

There was a little racking sob that shook her body, and one hand reached up to swipe a wet tear off her cheek. Then her jade gaze shifted from her lap to his face. It only took a moment for Gwen to break down all over again.

Kevin watched her quake and quiver. He hated seeing her so broken and knowing that there was little he could do to help. He watched her as she sat there, body curled into itself and her eyes spilling hot tears of agony. It took him a second or two to figure out how to help her, but eventually he reached out one hand and put it on her shoulder. "Gwen?"

She wouldn't look at him again. She couldn't. Not without losing herself. Gwen was deep enough in her misery that she knew she was drowning, soon to be lost in the sea. There were no ships in sight, no way out of this eternal darkness, no way to recover from this bullet of pain that had pierced her chest. She couldn't see any way out; Gwen could only sink deeper to drown.

Understanding that she wasn't capable of a response without letting more shaking sobs escape, Kevin accepted that they wouldn't be able to talk out the problem like his redhead always wanted to do. If she couldn't speak, how could he expect to help her with words? So Kevin, always one to be more physical with things, wrapped one arm across her shoulders and pulled her tightly to him over the console that kept them separated. There was enough give in her seatbelt that he was able to hold her against his warm, broad chest. Kevin was silent. He would let her cry as long as she wanted to. They didn't have to talk. As long as he could help, he felt useful. Even when she was crying, at least she wasn't alone. That was all he wanted. For her to never be alone.

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**A/N: Review?**

**~Sky**


	64. Radio

**A/N: Well, I'm not overly happy with this, but it's such a classic argument. And I really wasn't sure where I wanted to take it. Starts off strong and then… fizzles out. Like, I wanted to write it, but I wasn't sure how to finish it off. It's pathetic…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or any associated characters.**

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"No." His voice was firm and focused, one hand on the wheel while the other slapped Gwen's hand away from the stereo system. "My car, my music." Kevin wasn't one to back down. No, not Kevin. He had the determination of a thousand warriors ready to charge into battle, each one of them with eyes brimming with bloodlust. Gwen wasn't getting away with changing his music.

Her emerald glare was fierce enough to set a sun ablaze. Her lips were twisted up in that thoughtful way as she tried to find a loophole through his logic. Of course, he was right, but admitting that to him was like giving a terrorist a bomb. He would get cocky and stupid again just because she said he was right. Gwen's hand reached for the radio again, making yet another attempt at changing the station over to The Pulse instead of the alternative junk her boyfriend had blaring through the speakers in the current moment. She thought she had timed it perfectly so that he wouldn't see her-

Once more, his hand swatted hers away. "Really, Gwen? That's so petty... I'm driving. I need to focus on the road _and_keep you from changing my music. Not fair." Kevin's obsidian gaze flitted between the gorgeous redhead in his passenger seat and the black road that seemed to stretch out endlessly ahead of them. "Totally not fair."

She wasn't going to give up. If she gave up, she'd lose all dignity she once possessed. It was a stupid fight over the radio. And she had magic powers for god's sake! How hard could it possibly be? A bit of mana extended from her fingertips. It didn't glow as white in the moonlight as her fingers did. If she could just dim it enough to turn to The Pulse without Kevin's noticing...

"Gwendolyn Catherine Tennyson." His voice was a bit more playful, but still head a slightly scolding tone. "You, Miss Goody Two Shoes, are trying to sneak past me and change my music." His hand, the one that wasn't on the wheel, captured hers in a loving way, breaking the connection with the mana; Kevin pulled it to his lips and kissed her palm sweetly before releasing her from his grip. "Please don't touch my music." And his attention turned back to the road, the sounds of "Vindicated" by Dashboard Confessional being the only noise to fill his ears other than the rumbling purr of the car's engine.

She sunk into her seat a bit more. Pouting? Maybe. Sulking? Most definitely. Pissed? Of course. When had he become such a control freak?

Part of her suddenly wondered if she had done it...

Still, she wouldn't back down. She was his other half, and, therefore, she had a right to what music was played in the car. "Kevin, can I please change the radio station?" she asked, trying a better approach to the problem. Sometimes he responded to kindness better than an attack. If you could consider trying to change the radio without Kevin noticing an attack, anyways...

"Lemme think about it." There was a momentary pause where Kevin's finger tapped his lower lip as he thought. "No." And his hand rested on the wheel once more while his gaze strayed off into the all-encompassing night.

It just wasn't fair! She was a loyal girl, had saved his life countless times, and treated him with more respect than he probably deserved. Yet, somehow, she hadn't earned the right to have control over his radio. Completely unfair! So she slumped into her seat some more and schemed some more, thinking some more and plotting some more. Sure, she was Miss Goody Two Shoes, but that didn't mean she couldn't be a brilliant evil mastermind at the same time.

Her jade orbs focused intently on the radio, watching it and willing it to change. Maybe her powers could be invisible for a few minutes. Yeah, that was exactly what she needed! Invisible mana. Perfect, perfect. With those emeralds intent on the radio, she focused; Gwen willed the radio to change channels.

And it did. The station flipped over to some country channel that was playing "Backwards" by Rascal Flatts. The best part was that the volume was so loud from the quiet alternative sounds of Coldplay and OneRepublic, that once the station flipped over to bouncy country music; it was blaring like a police siren into the two teens' ears.

Kevin was quick to flip it back, his finger hitting one button to let more There for Tomorrow flood the air. "Do I need to jack my iPod up to this thing to get you to stop?" asked the Osmosian, dark eyes flitting between his beloved and the radio. He hadn't seen her do anything, but how else could it have changed?

She sank into the cool leather seat some more, arms folding across her chest in frustration. "We've been listening to your music for three hours now," she whined. Gwen hated whining almost as much as she hated being the only one of the trio without a car, but she couldn't help herself. She was mad that he wouldn't surrender the control of the radio for even just a few minutes so she could listen to one or two songs and turn off all these depressing tunes that he kept on.

"Not my fault that I couldn't just fly us to central Idaho with the Rustbucket III." His face turned hard for a moment as he realized he was lying. Still, he wasn't going to fix his mistake. Maybe Gwen wouldn't even notice...

She did. "It kind of is your fault. Remember the crash landing on Thorus last week?"

"Ahhhh..." Kevin had fond memories of that landing. "Yeah, so maybe it is my fault. Still my car. My radio in my car, which subsequently means my music." His fingers tightened on the wheel, knuckles quickly turning a shade of snowy white. "How about I let you listen to your music on the ride back? That sound good?" The corners of his lips turned upwards as a smug grin crawled across his usually stoic features.

"No."

His grin faded in a heartbeat. "Please don't turn on the pop music, please. I'm begging you. If I hear one more Lady Gaga song, I'll lose my mind!"

"Again?"

Her smart remarks were playing his nerves like a piano; he suddenly knew how she felt all the time. "You know what I mean." Kevin brushed it off as if nothing had happened. Of course, he still felt the wound. "Just please leave my music on. Please?"

Gwen gave a long, heavy sigh and let her arms cross her chest. "Fine." At least she was in control of what was going on. She was appeasing to him instead of the other way around.

Kevin had always been good at mind games. Messing with Gwen was always just too much fun. Making her feel like she was in charge was enough to make her let him get his way. There was no better feeling in the world. "Thanks, Gwen." Yes, Kevin loved his mind games...

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**A/N: Still not thrilled with it, but whatever. Review?**

**~Sky**


	65. Us

**A/N: Just a quickie that hit me and didn't want to leave.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Ben 10.**

**Warning: Rated T for making out. No serious details, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Oh, and like two cuss-ish words.**

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"Is it wrong that I'm jealous of them?"

Gwen looked over to her boyfriend with a questioning brow raised. The redhead had been enthralled by the movie that was being shown at the drive-in theater. She had hardly heard Kevin speak. "What?" she asked with a shaking voice after being so quickly pulled from the movie and back to reality.

Kevin threw a finger over his shoulder to point to the smaller black and green car that was next to theirs. "Them."

Gwen looked past her boyfriend to Ben and Julie who were getting hot and heavy in her cousin's car, Ben trying to pull off the tennis player's jacket while her lips pressed harder to his like she could only live off of his breath. The redhead cringed a tiny bit. "For one, that's a little bit gross and for two, why would you be jealous of them?" Her eyes were still glued to the making out couple as Ben managed to pull off Julie's pink jacket all the way. It was disturbing but she couldn't look away. It was almost like a horror movie: you have to watch to know how it ends. Sadly, Gwen didn't want to know how this would end.

"Because they can do that," said Kevin, his eyes flitting across the screen that hung in front of the car. He wasn't paying any attention to the movie. Alien monsters from whatever stupid planet the writer put on the script. Did it matter? He fought aliens every day. "I mean, look at us." He indicated to the two of them who sat in their respective seats, him with his elbow on his door and his fist on his cheek to hold his head up, her with her legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap. Gwen did as instructed. "Now look at them."

This time, Gwen didn't look. Instead, she kept her emerald eyes intent on her boyfriend only to see how bored he was with the whole situation. "I don't get it."

Kevin let out his "you just don't get it, do you?" sigh before shaking his head slightly. "Gwen, I love you. Really, I do. And I get that you have limits and stuff, and I respect it _because_ I love you." His obsidian gaze was firm on her. "What I don't get is how they, the quietest couple I know, can just do _that _and make it look almost natural."

"You're jealous because they make-out in drive-in theaters?" She wasn't quite grasping his logic. What did this have to do with anything?

"Gwen, you're missing the point." Kevin's eyes strayed back to the movie where an alien with about a hundred and twenty tentacles ate a girl's face off. Screams echoed through the theater; none of it even fazed the Osmosian and the Anodite.

"Then what _is _the point?" asked the girl as she tilted her head to one side, eyes full of unanswered questions and lingering emotions that wouldn't subside as long as she was around him.

"They're locking lips right there. And which one of us kissed first? We did. Which one of us is more OCD about protecting each other? We are. Which one of us is serious? We are. And we fight all the time, but one slip up and Ben's a single man until Julie gets lonely and realizes that she misses her local dumb-ass and crawls back to him." Kevin didn't look at Gwen. "I just don't get how we do this and they do that."

"We aren't doing anything," commented Gwen, partially seeing what he was getting at. Ben and Julie were so focused on each other, but everyone knew it wasn't going to last.

"My point exactly."

Gwen pursed her lips and mulled over all of this while Kevin's face grew even more bored with the movie. Now the girl's face was being mutated onto the monster for that deceptive quality, it's howls and snarls turning into the shimmers and cries of a little girl. Bo-ring. "So you want to do something?"

"Gwen, I can place fifty bucks on the fact that the screams are only coming from people on their first dates. Trust me. No one is even watching this movie."

"Except for us."

"Except for us," repeated Kevin with a sigh. The fact that he wasn't even watching it made even that statement one massive lie. He flipped the lock on his door repeatedly.

"So you want to do something?" asked Gwen, now getting his drift. She was slow, but she wasn't dumb. She picked up on what her boyfriend was dishing out.

"I know the rules. I'm just saying that I'm jealous that they can do that and we just sit here. Seriously, why aren't we like that? That's totally us!"

"Why? Because you're a bad boy and I'm a girl with an attitude?"

"Exactly!" Kevin realized his mistake, but she finally understood and that was what he wanted. "I don't need to do _that_ to know that I'm with you, but it's lame compared to them, but it's not us. Our version of making out is arguing and saving each other and sitting on your roof. We don't need _that_. My issue is, why the Hell are we sitting watching this lame movie?"

To this, Gwen had no response. She was still trying to absorb the fact that Kevin knew exactly what their relationship was all about. They didn't need the physical touch like their counterparts did. They just needed each other and a quiet place to hang out and pitch arguments. The car was always the perfect place. Finally, Gwen offered, "My roof?"

"Please," said Kevin, desperation in his voice as his fingers automatically found the gearshift and he was pulling out of the lot. He didn't need a movie and he didn't need any kissing. Sure, it was nice, but he knew what their romance was and he knew they weren't anything like Ben and Julie.

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**A/N: There's a second part to this to be posted soon. So review!**

**~Sky**


	66. Them

**A/N: Well, here's that second chapter. Shorter, yeah, but it's because it's the Benlie side and there's a lot more that I can do on the Gwevin side.**

**Disclaimer: No, still don't own.**

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"Is it wrong to be jealous of them?"

Ben didn't know how to answer to this. He wasn't quite sure what she was tal- He got it. "Jealous of Gwen and Kevin?" He almost felt stunned by the thought of it. His girlfriend jealous of them? What was the world coming to?

"You know how much we fight." Julie felt the uncomfortable tension rising in the small space of Ben's car as it flew down the highway behind that of a certain Osmosian. Her brown eyes watched the car in front of them and she saw Gwen yelling and pointing a finger while Kevin threw his hand up the air in exasperation. They were fighting. Again. "And you know how much they fight."

Ben knew. It was like a week couldn't go by without a scream-fest between the aforementioned lovers. And he and Julie, well... "Yeah." He pressed down on the pedal a little bit to keep up with Kevin. "What about it?"

"Have you ever noticed how they can fight and still stay together?"

Ben had noticed. There was always someone yelling. Always. And when they weren't yelling, there was some arguing. But by the end of the day, there was always a kiss when Kevin drove the Anodite home. He wasn't sure how it worked. Magic? Mind control? But they were always together. He didn't know how they managed such a feat. Screaming all day but a kiss at night. It was them; it was how they were. "Yeah. I noticed."

"Why aren't we like that?" She continued to watch the situation in the other car unravel as Gwen began to hit Kevin's shoulder and he began to push her away. "Why can't we stay together like they can?"

Ben let out a quiet sigh as he switched lanes and sped up a bit so he was riding a bit behind Kevin off to the left. "I don't know." He checked the mirror to see if there were any cars behind him. None. "Maybe we're just not strong enough. Maybe there's something that they have that we don't."

Julie wished she knew what it was. Part of her had always imagined finding someone she could love that would fight with her but always care in the end of it all. For some reason, she felt like Ben wasn't that person. But he was sweet and nice, and she wouldn't complain too much. He was a good guy. "Because we don't love each other as deeply as they do. I think they've got what really counts at the end of the day."

He gave a sad little sigh as he watched Gwen punch Kevin's arm and point to the road, her mouth forming furious words. "Whatever they've got, I hope they keep it."

"Me too."

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**A/N: Review?**

**~Sky**


	67. Over the Phone

**A/N: I needed a little pinch of fluff in here. And I think this is only the second or third time a Car Argument has ever taken place in two separate cars… And I don't like having to separate the opening, but it feels better that way. To set it up.**

**Disclaimer: Nope. Don't own. **

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Gwen was hiding in Ben's car for the night. Why? A number of reasons, actually. She didn't want to go home and face her parents for staying out after curfew, and she didn't want to deal with going inside and having her aunt and uncle be the tattletales that ratted her out. So she'd opted to stay in her cousin's car for the night, blanket wrapped around he'd shoulders, heart raw, and face stained with now-dry tears.

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Kevin was staying in his car for the night. Of course, he had the added safety of the garage, but it was still pitiful for him to not be in his own home and asleep on his own bed. He just didn't want to go home so miserable. His mom would pick up on it and start asking questions, then when she didn't get answers, she'd call Harvey and tell him to talk to Kevin and from there it was all pretty messy. He preferred the car. Despite how alone he was.

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It felt like she'd only gotten to sleep fifteen minutes ago when the buzzing of her phone on the leather seat next to her brought her to her senses. Instinctively, she reached for it and flipped it open in a heartbeat, breathing her usual "Hello?" in a groggy, tired voice.

There was a pause and a familiar sigh. "Someone once told me to never go to sleep on a fight."

Gwen regretted answering the call. "Kevin..."

"We can't deal with it tomorrow. Besides, it already is tomorrow. It's, like, two in the morning. So if you say we're dealing with it tomorrow, that means today, so we're talking."

She loved him, no doubt, but when he started talking sense, it made her worry for her own sanity. The day Kevin started speaking logically would be the day she'd become as useless as a bag of bricks. "Really, I was just getting to sleep when you woke me up. Can't you call back when the sun's up?"

He didn't want to deal with the guilt any longer. And she taught him to never sleep on a fight because it just makes things worse in the long run. "Sun's up in Bermuda," he said, voice resolute; no way was he backing down from this one. Kevin was determined to make things square. "Now come on, let's talk this out. It can't be much worse than talking out that Charmcaster thing."

The redhead shuddered at the memory. There had been a lot of screaming involved there. It was not something she wanted to repeat any time soon. "Then let's talk." She wasn't starting. No way. He had to say it first. Rules of a relationship, duh. One of her arms wrapped tightly around her body as she shivered against the cold. Gwen made a mental note to remind Ben to keep a warmer blanket in his car.

"I'm sorry I can't say it, Gwen," he said, the mental and emotional strain audible in his tone. He sounded weak, tired, worn. "You need to know that I want to say it, but I can't because it means commitment and I'm terrified of commitment, okay? I'm afraid of three things: crocodiles, going insane, and commitment. Call me crazy, but I'm serious. I think it's a real phobia. Is it?"

She leaned into the leather seats, finally sitting up. The phone was pressed to her ear with one hand. Gwen let a small smile show on her countenance. Kevin had a habit of babbling when he was nervous or just generally didn't know what to say. Kind of like Ben. Another smile graced her features. They'd picked up a lot of bad habits from each other over the years... "Commitmentphobia," she clarified for him, voice showing her amusement. Some of the things he did could just light up her whole day.

"Not a very creative name..." commented Kevin on the other end of the phone, now leaned up against the car door with his head in one hand, black hair all ruffled from hands running through it countless times as he stressed over what to say for the past five hours.

"I know."

There was a long pause. "I guess it all ties back to my dad and Harvey and all of that... I can't really deal with that again and if I say that I love you, then that means I'm part of something that can be broken." Another sigh, this one sharper than the last. "I know you won't hurt me, but I don't know if I can always keep from hurting you, and if I say I love you, then I could hurt you more if something happens again like with Aggre-"

Gwen hated listening to him spill all his sins and all his pain. It just hurt to hear all the bad stuff he'd been through in all those seventeen years. So much bad stuff... She interjected, "Kevin, really-"

"No, Gwen, I need to say it, that's the problem! I need to be able to make a commitment. And have you noticed that we aren't even officially a couple? We just kissed and sealed the deal right there. You saved me from having to make a commitment, yeah, but look at where it's got us now, 'tween a rock and hard place." He ran his hand through those ebony locks once again. There was a long pause. "I just need to tell you," he whispered through the phone even though he was talking mostly to himself.

She thought she was feeling her heart shattering in her chest. Pain seemed to be growing in her chest, raw and deep like a fresh wound. "Kevin?"

There was a long silence from the other end, a long period of soundlessness, the quiet seeming to echo in her ears as she listened for his soft response. She knew where he was, in his car somewhere, hiding, all alone. She was doing the same. They almost always had the same thoughts. It broke her heart to imagine him all alone somewhere, just thinking to himself how much he needed to say that he loved her. She knew it, she didn't need to hear the words, but some part of her longed to hear his husky, gentle voice breathe, "I love you." It was what she was craving to hear, what every ounce of her body was longing for so desperately. She wanted to hear it so badly that she could taste it, but the girl was patient, knowing the Kevin had a few too many issues to be sorted out in a couple of years. He'd need more time to be able to come anywhere near making such a commitment.

And the worst part was, she knew he was right. They weren't officially together. Not by word, anyways. Just by touch, by feel, by emotion. Words were nothing to them; they spared word wars back and forth to each other on a nearly daily basis. Saying that they were in love wasn't necessary. They knew it by touch, feel, and emotion. It was they way they were. They weren't officially together. Nothing would make it official now. It was official in the way that they were.

"Yeah?" he asked back, his voice still soft, still gentle, still weak. It was evident that he was still regretting all of his life's bad decisions, all the reasons why he could never stay with something for very long, all the ways he could've done better. He was always busy hating himself…

"I love you."

That was all he really needed. Words. He needed words. He needed those words. Those three little words that meant the world to him. Kevin ran his fingers through his hair again, looking at the cold black interior of his car and looking at the fogged over windows. He paused and drew in a breath of air.

"I love you too."

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**A/N: I liked writing this. Review?**

**~Sky**


	68. How to Deal With a Ransom Call

**A/N: I love using these guys. Another one featuring Dev, Eli, and Kenny. I know most people prefer the usual gang, but I wanted to change it up for the first time in a while. Hope that's okay for the one who requested this update last weekend.**

**Disclaimer: Own Eliza. That's all.**

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"Hello?" Devlin asked through a mouthful of cheeseburger just as Kenny, in the passenger seat, was slurping down the last of his first smoothie while a hand reached for the second.

Through the speaker on the phone came a raspy voice that filled the car with ominous air. "Is this Devlin-" A deep, harsh breath. "-Levin?"

Kenny spoke up between smoothie slurps as the first cup got tossed out the window (Devlin gave him a smack on the shoulder for littering) and the second straw being pressed between his lips. "Do you have bronchitis or something?"

Devlin rolled his eyes. "Yeah, this is him." He took another massive bite of his burger. Creepy voices over phones made him hungry. That, and not eating for six hours made him hungry. Either way, he was still hungry. "What's up?" he asked through a mouthful of cheese, lettuce, fake meat, bread, and ketchup. McDonald's was not his friend. Them and their fake meat...

"I have your sister," said the rasping voice through the phone, getting more hoarse by the second, obviously doing a terrible job at trying to disguise their voice without an actual device. "Elizabeth."

Devlin wiped a little ketchup away from the corner of his mouth. "Oh, that's cool, you can just drop her off wherever. She's got a hoverboard to get home with. Sorry for the trouble, she's kind of like a dog sometimes, runs away but always has to get back home at some point, ya know?" He took another bite of his burger.

"A very ugly dog," laughed Kenny, almost spewing smoothie all over the already cracked, dented, and repeatedly smashed windshield of his best friend's pick-up truck.

He got another good smack.

A slightly irritated sigh erupted from the phone. "I am holding her for a ransom of five million dollars." The voice took another deep breath, annoyance lacing it heavily. "You will bring the money to-"

"Five million bucks?" Devlin knew how to play this game. A bit too well, really. "I don't have that kind of money." His deep blue eyes flitted to Ken. "Do you have that kind of money?"

"No I do not..." He took a long sip of his smoothie, half of the pink concoction already sitting in his stomach. "I'll bet we could deal with this without the money getting involved," he commented with a slight shrug to Dev.

"We probably could," agreed Devlin, staring at the ceiling for a moment before shoving the last of the burger into his mouth. He swallowed it down before continuing. "A little bit of fire power, you and me, one bad guy, plus Eli trying to fight back... Yeah, we could do it."

Something similar to a growl came from the phone. "I will kill her if you do not bring five million dollars tonight to th-"

"Actually, I'll bet we could just leave her to fight her own way out. She'll probably take care of herself. She's Eli."

Kenny smirked. "She could kick this freakshow's butt, no question. By the way, get a real voice disguiser. Seriously. The whole Darth Vader thing? It's for the birds. Just don't."

Devlin drained a bit of his soda after popping a few fries into his mouth. "On second thought, you can just keep her."

"Yeah, we don't want her," Kenny added, wiping the condensation from the cup off of his hands and onto his jeans, a bad habit he'd picked up from his father. "She's a girl. Girls have cooties, don't you know that? They're all nasty and girly and they scream a lot and have too many emotional issues." He shot a smile to Devlin, a smile that the Levin boy returned. "We don't want her back. You can just keep her. Don't worry, you can pay for her food and everything now, so you just saved us, like, five million dollars."

Finally, the voice facade was dropped. "Why not?" howled the real voice through the line, husky and low.

Devlin put his soda in the drink holder and put the fries in the glove compartment quickly before taking off the brakes and throwing the car into reverse to pull out of the Burger Shack parking lot. "Vulkanus," he said while reaching one hand out to slam the phone shut, the call ended.

Kenny smirked, still holding his smoothie. "Definitely Vulkanus."

A laugh actually came from the raven-haired teen. "I love ransom calls."

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**A/N: Review?**

**~Sky**


	69. Squirrels

**A/N: Um, just read…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own.**

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"Kevin, please tell me you're not serious," moaned the redhead while her brunette cousin continued giggling to the point of peeing himself in the backseat. "Crocodiles and alligators, I understand, but-"

"I just don't trust 'em!" He had his foot stomped down on the brake as the car sat in road at a standstill with a chorus of car horns firing up behind them. "I mean, they've got evil beady eyes and teeth like razors and I don't trust squirrels!"

Another round of giggles burst from Ben as he toppled over sideways in the backseat, his bladder ready to give way.

"You don't trust squirrels?" asked Gwen as she stared at the fuzzy gray creature in the middle of the street. Her brow knit as she put two fingers on the bridge of her nose; the girl's emerald orbs shut tightly as she took a deep breath. "A con-artist, a intergalactic hero, an almost-murderer, and you're afraid of squirrels?"

Ben could've sworn he peed a little bit right there.

After listening to a few seconds of Kevin's silence, she asked again, "Squirrels? Of all things? Squirrels?"

"I don't like squirrels." He folded his arms across his chest and kept his foot pressed down on the brake. Obsidian orbs glared at the fuzzy little body contemptibly. "They sleep in trees, they have massive tails, and can be rabid. Can't you see my reasoning?"

Gwen mulled over it while watching the squirrel munch innocently on a walnut in the middle of the road. The car horns from behind them blared loud and long. "No, Kevin, I really can't."

Ben's pants were about to be soaked.

"Well, dogs don't like squirrels." He pointed a finger indignantly into the air and took back his smug air that he usually kept around him. "And dogs are always right. Man's best friend." His ebony hair fell in his face when he turned his head to look at her. He was lucky he didn't see the stain that would be in his backseat for a few weeks at that moment. "Dogs know all."

How the conversation switched over to dogs, she had no idea. But she did know why dogs chased squirrels. "Dogs chase rodents and squirrels are rodents."

Kevin's face fell, his smug look falling into a pout. He looked back out at the road with a little glint of annoyance in his gaze. "Either way, squirrels are evil. They're stupid and mean and they bite."

After a few moments of contemplation, logic finally kicked in. She finally put the pieces together. "Did a squirrel steal your bacon when you were younger?"

His eyes narrowed at the memory. Dang squirrels stealing his dang bacon. The little suckers were evil, conniving little bastards. Take all the acorns he wanted to smash out of his backyard. Chatter outside his window and keep him awake all night. Steal his bacon. His answer was a reluctant and frustrated, "Yeah."

Ben ended up on the floor of the car, choking on his own spit, and peeing all over the backseat.

The squirrel was still in the middle of the road.

"Hate squirrels," growled Kevin, sinking down in the driver's seat as the horns continued to blare from behind his beloved Camaro.

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**A/N: Review?**

**~Sky**


	70. Locked Out

**A/N: Well here's the delayed update I promised you. Set in AF prior to "War of the Worlds".**

**Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own. Quit asking.**

* * *

He tugged on the door's handle a few more times.

"We're locked out?" asked Ben, voice a bit high with shock. "We're not on a prank show, right? You legitimately forgot your keys?"

Kevin's other hand continued to pat at the pockets that covered his person. Four on his jacket, four on his jeans, none on his shirt... No keys in any of them. "I musta lost 'em when we were runnin' from the Highbreeds."

"Yes, because retreating was such a good idea." Ben stuck his tongue out in his cousin's direction, the girl cocking her head to one side as her jade eyes narrowed in his direction. He hadn't wanted to retreat, but when the Highbreeds had brought out a cannon of some sorts and aimed it at Ben, Gwen had demanded a retreat and neither boy had thought to argue with her. Ben continued, "I _easily _could've taken them. They're easy with Way B-"

"Yeah, if the Omnitrix even decides to _work_, Ben." Her words were laced with hot venom, fresh off the cobra's fangs. "When you were ten, it was broken more than it worked. I don't want to put my faith into your stupid watch."

Kevin was frantically trying to find his keys before World War III broke out and his car was trapped in the middle of it. He kept patting pockets, digging around in them, hoping that, by some miracle, the jingling of metal on metal would ring out and he could shove both Tennysons in the car and get them home before they killed each other _and _him. Or destroyed his car, the worst scenario.

"I could make it work with any alien! I kicked Vilgax's butt before with tons of different aliens! And Greymatter's pretty much useless, but he's gotten us out of more than a few tight spots!"

"We wouldn't be in those spots if you weren't so pigheaded, always jumping into things and worrying about the consequences second!" Her eyes flared up with a familiar green blaze of unadulterated rage. "At least Kevin knows when to think!"

Great. Now his name was in it. Kevin looked to Gwen only to see that she was glaring vehemently at Ben. He looked back to the lock and began to silently beg for the keys to just drop out of the sky.

"You think _I'm _useless?" Ben unleashed a quipped laugh, short and mocking. His eyes glowed with confidence as he pointed to the Osmosian and said, "Kevin can't even do anything long-range!"

Keys. He had to keep his mind on the keys. Some part of him was begging to punch the brunette Tennyson in his pretty face and knock that mocking grin right off of him. Keys. Car keys. If he dropped them, they could've been along the path they took to get back to the road...

It was Ben's voice that came out next as he continued on. "And you can't blame all our problems on _me_, Gwen." He had a hand on his hip now and a smart-aleck look on his still-childish face. "Let's reflect."

Keys. They had to be around here somewhere. Keys keys keys. Focus on the keys.

"Vulkanus had a score to settle. We all nearly died. Kevin's fault."

His black eyes were on the ground, kicking around at the dirt in the moonlight, hoping to see a glint of metal from the shafts of silver that fell from the white orb in the middle of the obsidian sky. He didn't see any sign of keys.

"Then there was that time with Simion where he nearly got me killed because he didn't think to come help when we didn't answer."

He kicked a rock. Still no keys. He was about to pace around the car to follow the path they'd come from when Ben's voice rang out in the night again.

"And Morningstar-"

As if on instinct, Kevin's hands were thrown up, his fist connecting nicely with Ben's chin. "Oh man, I can't find my keys." He reached forward to pat the car's roof before swinging his arms back, giving Ben a good backhand across the face. "I'm sorry guys, looks like we're walkin' home." And he swung his arms forward again, lower, and managed to clip Ben's chest, just at the middle of his ribcage.

"You did that on purpose!" said Ben after a few moments of recovery and stunned silence while Kevin moved around the car to search for his keys in the dirt and dust. "Kevin, why did you hit me?"

"It was an accident, Tennyson." He tried to keep his voice innocent and harmless as he gave the jade-eyed boy a pathetic and apologetic look. "I swear."

Ben's lips pursed. His left hand clenched into a tight fist and, with one swift movement, he smashed in the driver's side window of Kevin's car. "There. We're in." There was a alight throbbing feeling at his chin.

Chest tightening, muscles tensing, teeth gritting, Kevin lunged over the hood of the car to grab for the Tennyson boy only to be stopped by a wall of mana suddenly jumping in between them. "Boys," was Gwen's firm tone cutting in. Her fingers politely flicked the lock inside the window and both the doors were unlocked with a _click! _sound.

"But! He!" Kevin couldn't get more than a word in after Gwen shot him a glare before moving around the car to get in the passenger seat, Ben already sliding into the back. He slammed his head down onto the car's hood. "Aw man…"

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**A/N: Review?**

**~Sky**


	71. Mask

**A/N: Oh look, an update.**

**Disclaimer: Own. Nothing.**

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The redhead slipped into the passenger seat, dropping her backpack on the floor before leaning over to give Kevin a soft kiss on the cheek. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." He returned the favor by pressing his lips to hers for a brief moment before settling back into his own seat and letting his foot slide off the brake and onto the gas as they sped away from the girl's school.

"Anything on the Plumber radar?" she asked while nestling her backpack between her feet on the car's floor. "Or can I actually go home and do my homework right away for the first time in forever?" A smile danced across her features as she looked in his direction, where the corner of his lips also curled upward.

"Home." His response was firm. "I figure the worst of the alien activity will come out at night. Basically, like our crime does."

"So a good night's sleep is out of the question?" she asked with a slight sigh, voice betraying her exhaustion. Really, school wore her out and fighting aliens wore her down. Just one night, she'd love it if she didn't have to worry about Earth being in danger or if her boyfriend was wounded in battle.

"Pretty much," Kevin answered, hands guiding the car around a corner.

Just as she was about to sink into her seat, a hand grazed her shoulder. Gwen knew it wasn't Kevin only because he never broke contact; strangely enough, he'd turned into a touchy-feely kind of guy. So the girl turned to look in the backseat only to see a purple creature with orange tufts of fur sticking out from the sides of it's head, hideous fangs dripping with something slimy, and empty black holes for eyes.

A girlish shriek and a blast of mana later, Kevin stomped on the break, pulled over to the side of the road, and began laughing. Because Gwen wasn't the one who shrieked.

Ben pulled himself off the backseat and held up his mask, eyes wide as half of it was on fire. "Gwen!" he whined, shaking it as though the action would make the fire go away. "That was like fifteen bucks! Do you know how many smoothies I could've bought with that money?"

She rolled her eyes and settled back into her seat, listening to her boyfriend's chuckling as Ben continued to whine. "Really, I have a frequent customer discount, but that doesn't mean I can just throw money around like that! I still had a lot of people to scare yet! Alan, Julie, my mom..."

"Then why would you use it on me first?" she asked with a tinge of attitude on her breath, annoyance prickling off of her like quills on a porcupine.

"Kevin told me to!"

The driver laughed even harder.

Gwen smirked. "Kevin?"

"Yeah?" he asked, wiping a tear from his eye. Oh man, Ben screamed like a little girl...

"You do realize there's a fire in the car, right?"

Black orbs widening, Kevin turned around and began to grope for the burning mask. No way was his precious ride catching on fire. "Ben! Gimme that!"

"No! It's mine!"

"You're gonna burn us all alive!"

"But it's mine!"

"BEN!"

It was Gwen's turn to laugh. Hey, she'd earned it after all of the stuff she went through with these boys.

"The seat's on fire!"

"Oh God!"

"My pants are on fire!"

"Get out of my car, Tennyson!"

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**A/N: Review?**

**~Sky**


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